Downfall
by Aki Vos
Summary: Sasuke sets his sights on cleaning out Konoha when his goals get turned upside down by some news; Itachi isn't actually dead. Confused and trying to find a way to restore his bonds with his long lost brother Konoha gets caught in the mix. R&R please.
1. Chapter 1

_**This story follows the Monga up to CH 482, just for your information.** :)_

* * *

Madara leaped away quickly with the tired body of the young Uchiha leaving Zetsu half way in the ground next to Itachi's body. Zetsu looked down at the body, half of him sighed. "It's kind of sad to see Itachi go. **I think he wanted it. **He did seem not to try very hard. **Well, nothing we can do now. What should we do with his body? **I don't know let's just get it out of the way. Maybe we should burn it, he is an Uchiha."

Zetsu reached down and grabbed his arm. His hand touch the warm skin and then reeled back. "**What is it? **There was a pulse. **Impossible!**"

Zetzu's hand went down again and he felt uneasy. He grabbed Itachi's wrist and put a finger over the vein and pressed down. "He's not dead… Close, but not yet. **Does Madara want him dead? **Let's give him to Kaiyomi, if he survives, she has a test subject and we get paid. **If he doesn't she has a dissection and we get paid.**" Zetsu smiled.

* * *

"Can I have a minute?" Sasuke asked quietly. Madara looked over at him and then began on his way out. Sasuke watch the old man leave and then lay back down turning over facing the cave wall. He took a stiff breath in and let it out; a small stream of tears began to flow. 'What have I done? He was the only one who actually… noticed me. He cared enough for me to give up everything… This is their fault. His death is on the third… No.'

Sasuke sat up quickly. 'It's all their faults… Itachi's death is on Konoha.' He heard shuffling of feet behind him and then Karin entered. "Sasuke, we just wanted to check on you. Are you…"

"I'm fine, let's get out of this dank cave." Sasuke interrupted her. He pushed passed her and found himself in the main room with Suigestu and Juugo leaning on the carved rock wall. Madara sat on a large table in the center of the room. "How do we get outside?"

Madara pointed up at a small hole in the ceiling and Sasuke jumped up. Suigestu stood on his own two feet. "Yo, Sasuke, where you going?"

They all followed him out onto a ledge. Sasuke stopped and looked over at the rising sun. "From now on we will no long be known as Snake…"

* * *

Zetsu came up from the rock below, Itachi's body over his shoulder, still warm with a weakening pulse. Zetsu knocked on the thick steel door. "Doesn't she know we can't go through steel carrying a body? **I think she knows.**"

The door opened slowly and a small girl smiled up at him. "Hi Uncle Zetsu. Did you bring a present for Kaiyomi?"

"Yup, is she around here somewhere? **That bitch better be home this time, I'm not waiting for three days like last time.**"

The girl rolled her eyes and did a deep loud whistle. A second later a thinly woman in a long white lab coat with a bright red dress on underneath answered the call. She smiled up brushing back her long blonde hair and got a glint in her eyes. "Zetsu… Did you bring me a present?"

"**He's still alive.**" Zetsu said quickly. Kaiyomi grabbed Itachi off Zetsu and began running down the hall. "What about our pay? **She'll pay us, she always does." **

"She's probably taking him back to her lab, it's this way, come on, Uncle Zetsu." The girl said and took the white hand and began dragging him in. "Kaiyomi-Sempai's been teaching me about Chakra, do you want to see?"

Without notice the young girl jumped on the ceiling, without dropping his hand, and kept walking down the hall. "That's good for being just five, Ruki. **When you're old enough I'll teach you how to push Chakra out your hand to kill somebody."**

"Cool. It's in here." Ruki said and pointed inside two swinging doors. "I'm not allowed in because she doesn't want me to see dead bodies yet, but you can go in." She dropped his hand and Zetsu pressed the door and went inside.

Kaiyomi was busy hooking an assortment of needles into Itachi's arms. She pulled out a pair of sheers and cut his shirt open. She pulled over a ECG machine and an automatic Defibrillator and hooked them up. "Zetsu, hand me that needle over there."

Zetsu looked over her shoulder and picked up a huge needle with a large cartage attached. Zetsu handed it over and she carefully put it deep into his wrist and began pulling out blood. "What's he worth?"

With her spare hand Kaiyomi dipped into her pocket and pulled out a three bundles of bills. She continued on and then noticed Zetsu stopping to stare at her. "What, is 15 million not enough? Or is it that I have 15 million, robbed a bank a couple of weeks ago."

"**Why this much?" **She simply smiled. "And you're saving him?"

"I know Itachi from a couple years back, I owe him a huge favor. He save me when my family was slaughtered." She said and Zetsu didn't have a response so he simply turned to leave. Kaiyomi kept plugging in various machines and instruments.

* * *

Sasuke sat back and stared off into the dark abyss of nights. Juugo walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know how you must be feeling…"

"You have no clue." Sasuke snapped quickly.

"I killed my sister when I was little when I got confused. I think about here every now and then though I can't remember her face." Juugo handed Sasuke over an Akatsuki coat. "I know it'll probably be hard for you, but you need to get your sleep tonight. And remember it's what Itachi wanted."

Sasuke took the coat and draped it around himself. "What he wanted… I suppose so."


	2. Chapter 2

"He's still fast asleep. I think using that black fire technique weakens the body with each use." Karin said walking back out of the room where they had put Sasuke. "I think that's why he collapsed. Extended use could cause permanent damage to the Optic Nerve and start causing blindness."

"That's fine, Sasuke really doesn't need that technique." Suigetsu said quickly. He looked up at the hole in the ceiling and began walking towards it and pulled his sword. "Someone's coming."

"They have no Chakra then. Probably just a vagabond." It was then a small rope was dropped down into the room and a girl slid down in. She landed softly on black heels and turned to the young shiobi.

Suigetsu pointed a finger at her. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" She carefully walked up to him and stuck out her hand. Suigestsu stopped and looked down at the hand for a second before he took it and shook slowly.

"My name's Katsuna. I've been sent by the River Temple, I have a prophecy to deliver to an Uchiha. Were not sure which one but the prophet told me I'd see a swirly head of orange." She said softly. "Would you know who that is?"

"Madara." Suigetsu said and dropped her hand. "He's somewhere over there but I think… Hey where are you going?"

"My orders were to deliver the prophecy uninterrupted, I'm sorry to be so rude." Katsuna said quietly and began walking away into a hallway. She entered a room where Kisame and Madara were just entering. Kisame quickly drew his sword and charged. Katsuna pulled the scroll out and held it out. "I have a prophecy from the River Temple for a mister Madara Uchiha."

Kisame stopped and took it. "Um… Thank you." He tossed it sparingly over his shoulder and Madara caught it. He pulled it open and read it quickly. Madara's hand tightly gripped the paper before he threw it against the wall.

"You expect me to believe that?" Madara said. "There's no possible way that will happen."

"I'm sorry, but we decided to give you fair warning before it happens. I can't do anything about it, I have no idea what was in closed in the message. The Prophet just told me to deliver it. He also said something about you. Something about old… what was it… Oh well, just like me to forget. Hi, my name's Katsuna."

Katsuna stuck out her hand and nervously Kisame shook it. Madara pushed him aside, "you know, I should kill you from coming here."

"That's fine, my only goal in life was to serve the Prophet, he died after writing that, I serve no purpose now, do as you please."

"We'll keep her." Karin yelled coming into the room. "She has no Chakra and is a bit of a ditz so she's no threat, we mindswell have a servant."

"That's fine." Katsuna said bowing. Karin grabbed her arm and lead her out back into the room where the boys were. Katsuna broke free of her and walked ove to Juugo and offered her hand, "Hello I'm Katsuna."

"I'm Juugo." He said accepting it. The both smiled distantly and Karin looked over as Sasuke walked over, one hand on the wall to keep him steady. Juugo turned behind him, "Sasuke, meet Katsuna."

"Where's Madara?" Sasuke said wearily and fell down onto a knee. Suigetsu raced over and helped him up. "That bastard didn't tell me the techinique would drain me this much."

"You really didn't ask him about it." Juugo said and then suddenly there was a loud crash.

Kisame came rushing into the room and Madara right behind him. Kisame smiled up, "that rooms structurally unsound, the ceiling just fell in. Weirdest timing on things…"

* * *

"Good morning, Itachi." Kaiyomi said walking over to the steel lab table she had turned into a make shift bed. Itachi turned his head slightly and opened his black eyes to look up at her. "You've sustained wounds to over 59% of your body, and that's not counting what you did to yourself."

"I'm dead, right?" He said quietly. She shook her head slowly. "I should be dead if not Sasuke then… You took care of the disease didn't you?"

"Of course, I paid 15 million for you, I need to get that back, and when we do, we'll be even." She said and turned around grabbing a sringe. "I have to check your blood to see how well the enhanced white blood cells are working."

"I save your life, you pay 15 million, you save my life, I give you 15 million, right Kaiyomi?" He sat up and suddenly fell back down. "Why can't I sit up?"

"I had to surgically repair every muscle in your body, you were lucky you got that far. Give it a day and you'll be able to sit up on your own properly. I've already sent an agent to go get your brother."

"Why?"

"Zetsu stopped by two days ago to see how I did on repairing you. Madara told him the truth, you're a martar in his eyes now. Said he even broke down crying for two whole days and is trying to plan revenge on Konoha since they order to you kill the clan which…"

"Forced Sasuke to kill me. I've got to stop him." Itachi said and sat up and used all his strength to stay up.

"It'll be a while, the agent I sent is very good at what she does, she can even cloak her Chakra."

* * *

"I made cookies!" Katsuna said rushing in with a huge plate, "do you want some?"

Juugo took one and bit into it then looked down at the cookie and tossed it in his mouth. "They're very good. Where'd you learn to cook?"

"My mother taught me right before she died, there's plenty more." She sat the tray down on the table and exited back out to the small kitchen. Suigetsu walked up and looked at the plate. He turned over to Juugo, "Hey, I bet I can eat more cookies then you."

"Suigetsu!" Karin hit him square on the head, "DON'T TRY AND START STUFF!"

Sasuke watched them with precision from the back of the room when he noticed Katsuna holding up a plate of cookies next to him. "They high in fiber and have nuts which promote…. I forget but they're good for you. Karin says you need to build your strength up."

Sasuke took one and bit into it. "Thanks." He didn't smile and didn't even notice as she walked away because he saw something flying through the hole in the ceiling. A messanger hawk like the one from Suna and Konoha.


	3. Chapter 3

"Katsuna, time to get up." Karin said rolling over and gently shaking the girl. Katsuna may be their age and super happy but on the first night they discovered that she had one flaw. Katsuna was terrified of the dark and need to sleep with someone in case she had a nightmare. Instinctively with Karin reminding her of her mother she clung to her. Katsuna yawned and looked up. "Let's go make breakfast."

"Okay, Karin." Katsuna got up and walked over to the small door and slipped her heels on. Karin copied her and they walked out together into the common room. To their surprise Sasuke was sitting on the table, the messenger falcon from before sitting on his shoulder. "Karin… get out."

"Okay." Karin said shakily and rushed back into the room. Katsuna smiled and walked foreword confidently. "You know it's rude to read others mail, Sasuke."

"You're not from the River Temple and you have Chakra. I don't really care why you're here but I do want to know how you can cloak Chakra, that'd be a useful asset." Sasuke said quickly. "So tell me or I'll go tell Madara."

"I can kill you before you even move, Sasuke, but that's not why I'm here, as for the chakra, it was a painful surgery that took two years to recover from, and I highly doubt you would want to be down that long. Now, my message." Katsuna held out her hand and Sasuke pulled it out of his robes and handed it over. "Thank you."

She opened it and read it quickly. "What does 'K 3 D, he is well' mean?"

"That we're leaving tonight. Don't tell anyone else yet. You'll regret it." She said still confident then smiled and went into her shy quiet voice. "So do you want scrambled eggs?"

"I like poached." Sasuke said and began to walk away as Katsuna went to go get Karin.

* * *

"Why does it hurt so much?" Itachi asked as Kaiyomi helped him walk across the floor. He shrugged her off and took a couple of steps on his own. "Let me guess, it's going to take a lot of work to get my muscles functioning like they used to?"

"Yep. If your able to run by tonight then we can leave, I intercepted a messenger bird, Konoha's being attack by Pein as we speak, but the Kyuubi boy's not there." She said. She picked up a needle and jabbed it into his leg. "This will take some of the pain away. Start walking faster and it'll hurt less when the drugs wear off."

"Should I be flapping my arms too?" He joked expecting her to hit him, instead she nodded.

"It'd be a good idea, flex them too. Feel free to wander, just stay out of the break room, I tried to cook this morning and exploded a potato." Kaiyomi said carefully and left Itachi to himself. As Itachi began walking in circles moving as much as he can he noticed something outside the door. "How's there!"

"HELLO! My name's Ruki!" She said bursting into the room. "Hey mister what's with the chicken dance?" Ruki watched him carefully then stood there for a minute before doing them as well. "Is this some training thing? Want to see what I can do?"

Ruki jumped up on the ceiling and began doing it above his head. "How old are you?"

"I'm five, how old are you?" Ruki replied quickly.

"I'm twenty," Itachi, tired of doing that exercise moved on and began looking around. "Do you have a gym around here somewhere?"

"Oh, the work out area, it's kind of Katsuna's but she's not here right now!" Ruki jumped down and grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hall and past two large revolving red doors to see a large gymnasium with a weight room to the side. "You mean like this."

Itachi walked over to some iron horizontal bars protruding from the wall and jumped an inch and grasped them the best he could. Slowly and painfully he pulled up. "Yes… Thank you." Itachi did a couple more curl ups while Ruki watched him carefully.

"Hey mister, wanna race." Itachi dropped down and took a deep breath in; he nodded slowly. Ruki backed up next to him and pointed to the red line just in front of him. "We stay on the outside and the red line's the finish. Three laps! Go!"

Ruki burst out as fast as she could which was equivalent to Itachi's longer stride. Ruki giggling jumped up on the wall and sped ahead. Itachi began to press harder through the pain. Soon Itachi had caught up to her then seeing his abilities returning he jumped up on the wall higher then her and easily took to changing the walls to the point where he was jumping the corners a quarter off the walls each time.

Finishing Itachi stopped and turned around. Ruki turned onto the wall and run up to him. "That's cheating, up can't jump corners."

"How about a 10 lap race, up the walls and across the ceiling?" Itachi laughed and smiled down at the child. 'She's good for training purposes.'

* * *

"Leaving?" Madara asked as Sasuke and the rest of the young adults stood behind them, "Just be more careful with your life, I don't want to find you an inch from death like last time."

"Don't worry; I'm not battling solo anymore. I'll keep in touch Madara." Sasuke said and turned around and nodded to his group. They headed out one after another, lastly Katsuna, "Kisame, I left you some raw fish in the fridge, buh-bye!"

She jumped out last and was nearly met by Sasuke's sword, "Now, you have a few things to explain."

"Later, we need to get as far away as possible." She said and uncloaked her chakra. Karin's head jolted. "Sorry to do that so close to you Karin, I forgot you could sense it."

"It feels like Kisame's…" Katsuna smiled and began to dash across the desert Sasuke with sword out followed directly behind.

* * *

"Here put this on." Kaiyomi said as they run along the path. She handed over a wig and false beard to Itachi. "Just in case we can't get in through the front with their current guards. I think we'll be fine when I offer my services. We'll be there in two days."

"I'll put it on in two days then." Itachi said and shoved them away in his bag. Ruki who was perched on top of Kaiyomi began fidgeting. "Ruki, are you alright."

"I have to go to the bathroom…." Kaiyomi halted and Itachi was able to stop somewhat close to them.

"Really Ruki you need to say that as soon as it hits, alright." Kaiyomi set her own and dug in her bag for a moist toilette, handing it over the little girl rushed a ways into the woods. "She's cute isn't she? I found her two years ago abandoned, I've been training her ever since."

"She's only five and on the ceiling, when does she get to be a kid?" Itachi asked and Kaiyomi smiled. "Don't tell me that she enjoys training."

"To familiar, eh Itachi?"

* * *

Karin was up twenty feet away from Suigetsu who had chosen to take south watch for a while. Juugo who insisted he could go without sleep the entire night chose to watch the North expecting retaliation from Rock country. Sasuke sat at the camp fire prodding it with his sword. Katsuna sat there waiting for something to happen.

"So, why don't you start with a simple explanation of everything." Sasuke said.

"I work for an OCD medical ninja named Kaiyomi, a few days ago we received a rather unusual arrival. Dealing in mostly dead bodies we were surprised to get one an inch from life. He's being rehabilitated and we're meeting up in three days at Konoha." Katsuna smiled. "Apparently, you didn't kill your brother, just beat the crap out of him."

"Itachi's…."

"I have a question for…. It's really dark and…. Can I sleep next to you, I don't like the dark."

"What?"

"Well… I kind of have this phobia of being left alone in darkness which is why I always have someone to sleep with or I don't sleep so would you mind? I can always get Karin…" Katsuna said and Sasuke walked away and cut a branch of a near by tree and dragged it over tossing it on the fire. He raised his hand to his lips and a small stream of fire came out and the log began to burn.

"I'm going to sleep… just don't hit me." Sasuke laid his head down and smiled. 'Itachi's…'


	4. Chapter 4

"So why did your employer keep my brother alive?" Sasuke asked as they raced across the sands toward the ever nearing forest. The others had accepted that Sasuke would handle the interrogation by himself seeing as every time they tried to ask a question him simply talked over them.

"Well, four years ago Kaiyomi was in rock country and her parents were slaughter in front of her eyes. Your brother stepped in and killed the men letting Kaiyomi live. She's always be trying to find a way to pay him back."

"So she sent you?" Katsuna nodded. "And she chose Konoha as a meeting place?"

"I'm pretty sure your brother chose it, Kaiyomi doesn't like to leave her labs. Says it takes away from her studies. She would have preferred me to take you there, probably." Sasuke stopped. Katsuna noticed and stopped as well. "What is it?"

"Why are we going that direction, Konoha's that way." Sasuke said pointing to the far left.

"Well I was following you; I thought you knew where we were going." She said innocently. "Alright, that way then!" Katsuna took off again in the direction he point.

Sasuke held his team back for a second. "What do you take of her story?"

"I don't see a real reason to lie." Karin said.

"It's not like you actually know someone who would turn themselves into a hot chick to lead you back to Konoha." Suigetsu joked, Sasuke didn't laugh.

* * *

"NARUTO, get down from there!" Fukasaku said hopping up and down in frustration! The little toad stopped and grimaced. "We do not climb on the Great Toad Sage, Naruto! Especially when he's napping!"

Naruto jumped down and laughed. "He didn't wake up, so why are you yelling? So, what's new to teach me? Any new Jutsus? Huh?" Naruto asked impatiently.

"No, you're all done with yer training fer now. I'm sending you back to Konoha, and when you get there tell that lazy bum to come home, can't get a hold of him fer nothing."

"Can do!" Naruto said, he grabbed his jacket off the floor and put it on and gave Fukasaku a big thumbs up. "Thanks for training me." In a simple poof Naruto was gone.

"That's boys gonna go far if he…. HE TRACTED MUD ALL OVER MY CEILING!" Fukasaku yelled falling to his knees. "This is gonna take for every ta clean!"

"Fukasaku, is that you yelling? Oh, who did this lovely interpretive art on the ceiling?" The Great Toad Sage croaked waking up.

* * *

"I'm not wearing it. They can just take me in custody. I'll look ridiculous." Itachi said, he was carrying a sleeping Ruki on his back as they slowly approached. "Did you just hear that?"

"That big explosion?" Kaiyomi said. Itachi pulled Ruki off and set her a ways off the road and looked over at Kaiyomi turning on his Sharingan. "You're not in a good condition to fight."

"Like I care…" Itachi muttered and ran into town. He ran to the first battle he could see and broke the too up. Sakura stopped and looked up at the figure for a second, dazed. 'Sasuke… no, ITACHI?' "What's going on here?"

"Danzou's trying to take over Konoha! What are you doing here?" Sakura said quickly. The Root ANBU attacking flung two kunai out at them, Itachi moved in front of Sakura and easily deflected both of them. "Huh, you…?"

"I'll take care of this one, tell everyone to let me kill Danzou though." Itachi said and blinked and looked the man in the eyes. The enemy began to scream in pain, without breaking eye contact Itachi walked up, pulled a kunai and slit his throat. Itachi broke it and walked up to Sakura who was standing still, her fist tightening. "What?"

"Sasuke…. Sasuke killed you. Why aren't you dead?" Sakura growled. Sakura pulled out a kunai and tried to hit Itachi with it. Calmly Itachi grabbed her by the wrist and sat her down.

"Right now, I'm not your enemy. Go fight for your city." Itachi disappeared and into the city Naruto came running and grabbed Sakura pulling her to her feet. "Sakura, what happened?...Sakura?"

"Root's, they're attacking the city." She said softly. She looked up at Naruto and a small stream of tears fled down her face, "Naruto, Kakashi's…. dead."

Naruto put a hand on her shoulder and rushed off quickly a clone appearing next to him. "Where's Sai!?"

* * *

Itachi carefully dropped down into Roots base and began walking towards the main room where he heard gasping pain from. Itachi looked into the room, and there was Danzou with a Root agent, twisting a sword in his shoulder. Itachi eyes pierced through and he laughed. Danzou's head turned.


	5. Chapter 5

Sasuke was the first to wake that morning to the early light of the sun. His eyes were strained, he had used them to try and pick up on Katsuna's heartbeat to see if she was lying yesterday, and so far there was nothing to disprove her. Looking through the thick forest trees he could see the sun just breaking through. Sasuke sat up and looked over the camp.

Behind him sleeping dangerously close to the log was Katsuna curled up into a little ball. Just up by her head was Juugo laying flat on his back with his hands behind his head. Up the tree above Juugo was Suigetsu sleeping like a cat, except louder. Finally Karin was no where to be seen.

Sasuke heard something behind him and began to head that way. He stopped at the river and turned his head to see Karin sitting by the river sleeping quietly. "Karin, you shouldn't leave the camp alone."

"Her chakra was too much for me, it felt like I was suffocating. Anyway, were only fifteen feet away it's not like anything really important could happen." She said and put a leaf on the river and watched it float down. "For some reason I want to believe she's lying."

"I don't think she is, and that's what matters. If her chakra's too much I'll go ask her to cloak it." Sasuke said and walked back to camp. He got there and bent over and shook Katsuna. The girl looked over at him and stuck her tongue out. "Would you mind putting your chakra cloak back on, it's disturbing Karin."

"Sure…" Katsuna sat up and pressed her hands together and her skin went temporarily blue then turned back to normal. "Are we getting up now?"

"Yeah. Juugo! Suigetsu! Let's get going!" Sasuke yelled.

* * *

"M. Uchiha, can I go now, I've had an open wound for most of the night." Sai asked as Itachi stared up at his art work. After Itachi had walked in on Danzou trying to kill Sai because he refused to fight. Itachi had tortured Danzou for a couple of hours and the final result ended up on the Hokage's building where Itachi had pinned Danzou to the side under the 'Fire' symbol by a sword through the head.

Itachi waved him off and Sai jumped down to the ninja that had gathered below. Sai sat down next to Sakura and started healing him. "Sai, are you alright?"

"It would have been better if he didn't make me sit there with him all night. Does Mr. Uchiha have something against Danzou?" Sai asked and then realized what he said. "More then trying to take over the city."

"Who knows…" Sakura said. She saw Naruto jump up and sit down next to Itachi. Itachi looked over at him then turned his head back.

"So, you stopped Danzou? Why?" Naruto asked calmly. Itachi smiled and looked down. "Did I say something funny?"

"I just thought you'd attack me, Naruto. If you want the truth, look in the third Hokage's case files. There's an order from him and Danzou to kill the Uchiha clan, but it was mainly Danzou's idea." Itachi appeared by the hanging corpse and pulled the sword out and threw it down; it stuck in the ground next to Sai. As the body slipped Itachi's hands moved and the body touched the ground flaming. Itachi appeared back on the ground and looked at Naruto. "I'd like to speak with the Hokage."

"She's down there, the one scowling at the blood on the building."

"Oh, Tsunade?" Itachi said and dropped down and landed a feet feet away from where Tsunade was growling about the condition of her city. "Tsunade."

Tsunade whipped around and saw him. "Itachi Uchiha? What are you doing here? You should know by now that if you come back here you wouldn't survive for long."

"I didn't come here to fight you, I didn't come here to fight at all."

"ITACHI!" Kaiyomi yelled running over with Ruki on her back. "There you are I've been searching for you all night."

"I'm fine, Kaiyomi. Tsunade, I only plan on being here until someone I'm expecting arrives. Please allow me to help." Itachi bowed and waited for a reply. Naruto jumped down and landed next to Tsunade.

"Hey Granny, he says that the Third and Danzou ordered the killing of his clan." Naruto said, "plus, he'll have necessary information on Akatsuki."

"I'll check about this order, but since you assisted Konoha, you may stay as long as you make yourself useful. And since he's advocating you, Naruto will be watching over you along with his team." Tsunade walked up very closely and began whispering, "And if you even think of hurting a hair on Naruto's head, the things you did to Danzou will look merciful."

Tsunade waved Shizune over to her and they took off towards the building. Naruto looked over at Itachi and thought for a second. "Who are you waiting for?"

"Would you believe me if I said Sasuke may be coming here soon." Itachi said. Kaiyomi set Ruki down. Ruki began pulling on Itachi's hand. "Hey Ruki, want to go for a race?" The little girl nodded and picked out a starting line.

* * *

"How far away are we?" Suigetsu asked. "I need a drink, it's so hot out."

Sasuke leapt from the tree and looked down. "I'd say about a half an hour."

"It's almost dusk." Juugo added. They looked to the sky, "if we pick up the pace we can make it before dark."

"Then let's move faster," Sasuke said and they took off. Suigetsu caught up to Sasuke and looked over at him. "What?"

"I just like to point out… you've be acting more normal. It's kind of creepy. I like the slayer Sasuke who charges in and kills everything." Suigetsu said striking a pose. "So what are you going to say to him?"

"Say?" Sasuke quarried. "I… I haven't thought about that."

"I don't think you should. I think you should just say what comes at the moment." Karin advised. "Rehearsed things usually come out wrong, and you really wouldn't have time to prepare anyway."

"I think you should just rush into each others arms crying… That was the best movie. Have you guys seen it?" Katsuna asked, and everyone gave her dead stares. "Not movie goers, eh?"

"Sasuke's not really the touchy feely guy. He's more of the person that bottles things up till they explode."

"Suigetsu!" Sasuke snapped quickly. "Shut up! That goes for the rest of you as well. I need quiet to think."

"Sasuke…" Karin tried to say but his hand lit up with Chidori. The rest of the trip was quiet and they stepped foot quietly at the opening of the village and Sasuke looked up at it. Looking through the wreckage a small boy hopped out Kunai flashing, he stood for a minute and lowered it. "Huh… Sasuke?"

"Konohamaru…"

"So, your brother wasn't lying."

Sasuke moved as quickly as he could next to the Genin, "where's my brother?"

"Naruto and Sakura took him and the girls he was with to the old Uchiha clan area… Where'd you learn to move that fast?" Konohamaru asked freaking out. "And you got a sword?! Can I play with it?"

"Well you haven't changed at all." Sasuke muttered and waved his team after him and they headed quickly to the old buildings. Konohamaru stood there for a minute before running towards the Hokage's building.


	6. Chapter 6

Itachi walked up to the doors and opened them while sliding his shoes off. He walked into the house and followed a small hallway down to a solid wood door and touch it to his hand lightly. Naruto watched him carefully making sure he wasn't doing anything wrong, but for some reason, Naruto turned around to give Itachi his own scene.

"This was my parent's room; I waited inside for twenty minutes for Sasuke to show up. He saw me standing over the bodies of our dead parents, and he didn't connect any dots until I told him." Itachi said, he laughed lightly, "Sasuke was always kind of hard headed."

"Tell me about it." Naruto agreed as he heard Saukra running towards him. She stopped short. "Sakura what is it?"

"Sasuke… he's outside the clan's gate. He refuses to come in. The girls, Sai and Captain Yamato are waiting with them." Sakura said quickly. Naruto grabbed Sakura's wrist and began dragging her out with him.

"Itachi, come on! It's Sasuke!" Naruto yelled. Itachi turned away and began running out with them; he then went ahead on them and landed on the roof top just diagonal to them. Naruto and Sakura caught up and stopped on the ground by Sai and stared at the group in front of them.

Katsuna walked over and picked up Ruki and began jabbering away at her. Kaiyomi sensing the tense feelings stepped to the side with her girls and walked observantly. Sasuke decided to ignore them and turned his head up and saw Itachi. He quickly reached the roof and looked Itachi in the eyes. "I want to hear it from your mouth, who told you to kill the clan?"

"Danzou ordered me to. Is that all you came here for, Sasuke?" Itachi asked and suddenly Sasuke smiled. "What are you up to, Sasuke?"

"Then it was a Konoha higher up, which means my actions will be justified… when I destroy Konoha. Join me; let's seek vengeance against those who have wronged us, brother."

"Sasuke… If you become a threat to Konoha I will dispose of you." Sasuke stopped and was taken a back for a minute. "I don't know where your jumble thoughts come from, but they aren't right. Danzou was the one who ordered the hit, Danzou hates Konoha and has never represented anything but what Konoha fights against. Danzou was our enemy."

"Madara said that the Third…"

"The Third knew about the coming up rise, yes, and he was trying to be diplomatic, but Danzou had me act before he could stop it. The Third was an ally of our Clan, just as the First was." Itachi said and began to turn around. "I'm disappointed in you little brother, you accept things at face value and don't use your head."

"Itachi!" Sasuke said and grabbed his arm. "I… I'm sorry I killed you."

"I wanted you to kill me Sasuke, that way you could go on to kill Madara." Itachi broke free and jumped down. "Sasuke, go take a night, figure some things out and come see me tomorrow. We'll play tomorrow, Sasuke. Naruto, I take it you still have to watch me?"

"Uh, yes. Sakura, Sai, let's go." Naruto said began to go but stopped and looked up at Sasuke, "Sasuke! We have some bad news."

"Kakashi was killed when Pein attacked yesterday, his funeral's tomorrow." Sakura added, they began to run after the older Uchiha leaving the team to themselves for a minute.

Kaiyomi grabbed Ruki and looked up at Sasuke. "Your name's Sasuke, right? Don't be mad at Itachi, he's been isolated for the past five years, and he doesn't really have any people skills." Slowly they made their way out and Sasuke looked down.

"Katsuna, why aren't you going with them?" She shrugged and just stood there. Sasuke jumped down and turned to the rest of his team. "Well, we better…"

"Sasuke Uchiha. Three years and you come back on your own; hopefully Orochimaru's thoughts haven't gotten into your head." Tsunade said walking up with Shikamaru and Lee on either side. "As a person, I'm happy to see you back, as a Hokage, I'm concerned."

"As a formality we'd like to know what your group's intentions are and a small profile on everyone here." Shikamaru said and held out a small file folder. "Inside are some forms each one of you need to fill out."

"Lastly, Shikamaru and Lee will be watching your group, just as a precaution. So, Sasuke, what are your group's intentions?" Tsunade asked with a strong glare.

Sasuke took the file and handed it off to Karin. "Right now our intention is to rest, we've been traveling for three days without food. We'll give the forms to Shikamaru when we're done. Is my apartment still in tact?"

Tsunade smiled and began to walk away. Waving a hand Shikamaru nodded and took over. "Nobody's been in there for three years, it'll be dusty, but it's intact. If you want the apartments around it are empty, the girls should have their own room."

"If you say so. Katsuna, Lee, come on we've got to get food. Shikamaru you can take them to my apartment." Sasuke said immediately taking charge. Shikamaru sighed and waved Lee off with them.

* * *

"Sasuke's stubborn and easily manipulated. He's also someone who wants thing immediately and doesn't like to wait. He'd rather go with an idea and hope it gets things done instead of slowing down and making things get done. He's been like this since he was little, but I see it's gotten progressively worse." Itachi sat himself down on his old bed and saw the dust fly out through the air. Naruto and Sai sat themselves down against the wall; Naruto sighed quickly.

"Do you think he'll really try to destroy Konoha?" Naruto asked.

Itachi laughed, "No, I'm sure he won't, he knows if he does that I'll stop him. I take it when Madara told him, he told him that I threw the fight and let him kill me. Actually, I died of a disease while fighting. Also, Sasuke doesn't want to disappoint me. When he was growing up, I was the only one who paid attention to him."

"When I was growing up, he was the only one who paid attention to me, of course, he was swearing at me the whole time." Naruto said and fell over on the floor. "I'm exhausted."

"Sasuke's room's the next one over, I'm sure he wouldn't mind." Itachi said and laid back. Naruto got up and left as they all heard the wild laughter of the women in the living room. "They're having a sleep over I take it."

"What's a sleep over?" Sai asked and Itachi rolled over to stare at the wall.

* * *

"Lee, you look like a miniature Guy. I assume you know this." Sasuke said as they waited outside a small convenience store waiting for Katsuna who was going in to buy the food.

"It's true, one day hopefully I'll be exactly like Guy. Guy's the most amazing ninja ever!" Sasuke let out a disagreeing noise. "I take it you have your own most amazing ninja ever? Who?"

"Not my most amazing, but defiantly something, I'm thinking I might go a round with him in a few years, if he isn't already dead. He's older then this city, that's for sure." Sasuke said and looked in the doorway to check on Katsuna's progress. "What's with women and talking forever shopping?"

Sasuke's head turned back to the street, he was mildly upset to see his entire Genin class standing there in shock and awe. He shook his head and Katsuna walked out and handed Sasuke two bags and Lee two bags evenly distributing them. "I got some playing card and a board game too, I figured we get board of each other quickly."

"Lee, Katsuna, let's go; it's crowded here." Sasuke said and he and Katsuna disappeared while Lee took off running quickly.

"So that's what Sasuke is now." Kiba said quietly.

"It's mildly scary." Ino added and slowly the crowd dispersed.


	7. Chapter 7

"What if we have no village of origin?" Karin asked.

"Ha! You're an orphan, at least I had Zabuza." Suigetsu teased. Sasuke reached over and hit him upside the head. "Alright, I'll keep the provoking to a minimum."

"Karin, just write Orochimaru." Sasuke said and handed his form over to Shikamaru and pulled a bag of chips out of the groceries and began eating. Katsuna put the cap on her pen and handed over the form to Shikamaru as well.

He took hers and began looking over it. "You're from Snow Country? And you've never had any village training?"

"Well, that's where I was discovered. And nope, no village training, I teach myself or learn from the ninja we deal with." Katsuna said leaned back against the wall. "Does anyone else feel extremely crowded?"

"It'll be better when we spread out into pallets." Sasuke said opened the window. "This place is so dusty… It's terrible."

Karin handed in her form and Shikamaru looked over it, "you've been with Orochimaru this whole time?"

"Practically raised me along with the prisoners I was assigned to watch." She said innocently. "I sense a good deal of chakra coming."

"I'll be outside on the wall." Sasuke said and stepped outside planting his feet to the left of the window and sitting on them. He brushed his hair out of his face quickly and Naruto copied him and leaned against the wall. "So?"

"So." Naruto took in a deep breath and sighed. "So that's your team?"

"Three of them, the girl without the glasses belongs to Kaiyomi. For some reason she's staying over here." Sasuke said and pulled another chip out of the bag and shoved it in his mouth. He held the bag over to Naruto who shook his head.

"She and Sakura are having a medical ninja party, they're being really noisy." Naruto looked over at him, "I don't know who you've become over the past three years, but you're still my friend, even if you want to destroy Konoha."

"I'm being a stupid emotional teenager… I never wanted to destroy Konoha, I just want someone to blame. Has, has Itachi said anything about me?" Sasuke asked gripping his bag nervously.

"Let's see… he said you're stubborn and impatient basically. I think he feels sad for you though, a lot of things he said were big brother things, like how you were treated." Naruto turned away and looked up to the sky and stared up at the moon. "He loves you, you can easily tell. He just wants to make sure you don't make any stupid mistakes."

"Naruto, I'm sorry I tried to kill you."

"Don't think twice about it. Oh, Itachi said it was alright to sleep in your bed, hope you don't mind." Sasuke shook his head. "A lot's changed since you've gone. We have a lot of rebuilding to do after the funerals. You are coming to Kakashi's funeral aren't you?"

"I don't know, I really haven't been invited." Sasuke said and Naruto stood up.

"Then, you'll come with me and Sakura and Sai."

"Naruto," Sasuke said quietly. "I'm sorry that you lost Kakashi, and I heard about Jiraiya too." Naruto nodded and the clone disappeared. Sasuke smirked, "figures."

Sasuke stepped inside and sat down on the window sill. Shikamaru looked over at him and turned back to the forms he was going over. Shikamaru stood up. "I don't see any reason that would threaten us on the sheets. Usually I'd stay no matter what, but I had a talk with a clone while you and Lee were out; your lucky Naruto still trusts you. Lee, let's get out of here." Shikamaru said and jumped passed Sasuke.

Lee bowed quickly. "See you later Sasuke." Lee jumped out the window behind him.

"Whose Naruto?" Juugo asked.

"He's the nine tailed fox." Karin said quickly. "He's the boy with the spiky blond hair we saw earlier. Orochimaru's notes said he can put up a deadly fight when provoked. Also said he's very dense headed."

"That's Naruto. He was my team mate when I was here, and he's still one of my best friends, and one day he'll be Hokage if his stupidity doesn't get him killed."

* * *

"It's like the sky's mourning…" Naruto said as he, Sakura, Sai and Itachi walked along the streets toward Sasuke's apartment. Naruto put his hands behind his head. "The sky was like this on the Third's funeral too."

"And when Asuma died. The earth seems to know when its people are sad." Sakura added. Naruto jumped up on the wall and went up to the window and pushed it open. Sasuke came out and stood on the wall and walked down with Naruto by his side and went up to his brother.

"Come on Sasuke," Itachi said and put his hand on Sasuke's head. Itachi showed no emotion but began to walk away letting the hand drop. Sasuke followed with the three in tow.

They arrived at the Hokage's building and began to walk up with the other shinobi from the village to the rooftop where Tsunade was holding it. They lined up and Tsunade approached them, "As his team I want you up front."

Naruto, Saukra and Sai began to head up, Sasuke watched them until Tsunade shoved him foreword. "You too."

Sasuke stepped up to them and Sakura began sniffling. "It's hard to think of Kakashi in that little box. Our mentors in a little box."

Sakura began crying and Naruto pulled her in and hugged her head to his chest. "What would Kakashi say if he saw you crying like this?"

Yamato walked up and patted her on the head. "He'd tell you there's no use in crying, it's something you can't change." Yamato moved over next to Sai and Tsunade walked to the front in her official robes, a bitter expression on her face.

"Sasuke, this is what Akatsuki does. This is why I had you kill me, to stop him." Itachi said from behind him. He leaned in and whispered. "Look at your friends, can you see the pain in their eyes? This is what Madara wants, this is why we have to stop him."

"Kakashi tried to teach me that revenge wasn't everything… he warned me about this happening." Sasuke said quietly. He bawled up his fist and two streams of tears came down. Naruto turned over and looked at him beginning to tear up as well. "If I hadn't left, there'd be other Akatsuki members alive so the Peins wouldn't have been released… It's a domino effect I set off."

Naruto placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, Sasuke turned and gripped on to Naruto and Sakura and began apologizing. Naruto moved his head hitting Sasuke's head, "it's not your fault. Anyway, Kakashi would want to die like this, he'd be a super perverted old man if he didn't."

The three began laughing a bit and Tsunade interrupted. "We are here to celebrate the life of a true ninja, a true friend and a true hero. Kakashi Hatake…" Tsunade lowered her head. She walked over and placed a hand on Yamato's shoulder. "I'm faltering… Yamato can you…"

Tsunade wiped a small amount of tears away as Yamato began to talk. "Kakashi was a good man."

"Kakashi was a great man!" Naruto yelled. "He's a better person than any of us could ever hope to be!"

"Yes… thanks for the correction." Yamato said. Yamato continued and the three remained like that, the funeral dispersed and everyone left them there comforting each other.

"I miss him." Sakura said quietly.

"He's the one person I would have proudly called dad." Naruto muttered.

"Kakashi was the greatest teacher any of us will ever have." Sasuke said.

"Remember when he didn't show up on time… on the first day."

"I can't believe he actually got hit by the eraser."

"I can't believe he didn't kick your ass for that." The three burst out laughing.

"Let's go get some dinner." Sakura said wiping her face.

"We have to stop by my place, I have to get money." Sasuke said.

"No way, I'm paying, now come on." Naruto told him and the three left, Naruto and Sasuke each with an arm around Sakura who had their hands around their backs. "This is the first time we three have ever been this close to each other."

"That's a good thing about death; it makes you realize what's important." Sasuke said and they leaped off the building. Itachi watched from above on a telephone pole. He stood up and bowed to the coffin on the roof. "You were a good ANBU Captain, Kakashi."


	8. Chapter 8

"The Jinchuriki is at Myobokuzan, the legendary mountain of the toads. There is a problem that the location of the mountain is held to be one of the world best kept secrets." Pein's first body said as he and Konan stood in from of Madara and Kisame, Zetsu was in the ceiling looking down. "The only man in the world that knew where Myobokuzan was, was the Sanin Jiraiya."

"Well then, you two should go and find it, shouldn't you?" Madara said. Madara leaned back against the table. "Kisame I want you to have a watch over Konoha, if he shows up take him."

"Madara, there's three more things. I need to find two new bodies before I head out into battle again, they were damaged beyond repair. Secondly, it on our way back we passed Sasuke. It seems as though he was heading to Konoha." Pein was about to continue when Madara interrupted.

"Good, then Kisame can work with our young Uchiha."

Madara was about to walk away when Konan spoke up. "We think we saw Itachi. We were heading back and could have sworn Itachi passed us with a woman and a girl. They were clearly going to Konoha."

Madara turned around and looked at her pulling off his mask. "I'm going to make this clear, Itachi _IS_ dead. I saw him dead. Zetsu, what did you do with the body?"

Zetsu looked down, "**I ate him**."

"That's gross. I'm sorry I asked." Madara put his mask back on and stormed out of the room. Kisame putted her head, "there are a lot of people out there that look like Itachi, I got him confused one time with another person. It happens, Konan."

Zetsu disappeared into the ceiling as Kisame left. Konan turned to Pein. Pein turned away. "Then we were mistaken, nothing more. Let's go back Rain for a bit." Konan nodded and they left.

* * *

Kisame walked along the dried earth when he felt a trembling and took a step back to see Zetsu slowly rising out. Zetsu's trap opened and he looked up at Kisame. "You should know I didn't eat him."

"That's somewhat of a relief, because that really is gross you know." Kisame said and knelt down next to him.

"**Itachi isn't dead, he survived Sasuke's attacks. **That was probably him heading to Konoha. **That girl that showed up was an agent of the medical ninja we took Itachi to. **We believe Itachi arranged for Sasuke to go to Konoha, and if they get together **say goodbye to Akatsuki. Itachi's two goals are protecting Sasuke **and killing Madara."

"So, Itachi wasn't kidding when he said he really does hate being in Akatsuki?" Kisame reached up and scratched his face. "This is going to be fun. So, what are we going to do?"

"I'm scared of Madara, but I'm scared of Itachi too. **Best course of action is to pick a side and stay there. **I know what type of boss Madara is, and I know what type of ruler Pein is; **I don't want to work for them forever.**"

"Itachi is my partner… Say we support Itachi, what do we get out of it."

"**We won't have to put up Pein and Konan anymore and their god complex.**" Zetsu said quickly. "Do what you want, I've chosen my side."

"I do owe Itachi for saving my ass a couple times. I tell him you said hi." Kisame walked around him and began running towards the fire country.

* * *

Sasuke sat up from the floor and looked around the room, Sasuke was asleep in hi bed and Naruto curled up at the edge of the bed. Sasuke exhaled and turned to the door. 'I can't believe I'm back in this place.' He opened the door and peeked outside to see the door of his parent's room.

Standing he crept out of the room and down to Itachi's and knocked and turned the door knob. Itachi looked up from his bed where he sat putting on his socks. "Could I borrow a shirt?"

"Sure, they're all dusty though." Itachi got up and opened his closet and handed him one. Sasuke opened it and saw the giant clan emblem on the back. "We'll go matching today."

"We haven't gone matching since you were put into ANBU." Sasuke said lightly and pulled off the white coat he wore and threw on the Shirt. "It's a little tight."

"You're a bit bulkier then I am." Itachi told him as he reached in his pocket and pulled out his Akatsuki ring. "I kind of want to keep this."

"Then keep it, it's not like someone's going to show up and ask for it back." Itachi nodded and slipped it on his right ring finger. "So, about the whole destroying Konoha thing…"

"It's what Madara wants, that's why he told you the truth. I was easily manipulated at 15 too, and Madara is a master manipulator. He played on our innocence." Itachi said sadly. He sat back down on the bed and looked over to his brother.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"I don't know Sasuke." Itachi shrugged. "You'll have to start thinking for yourself and stop being told what to do."

Sasuke sat down on his bed and leaned against him. "I don't really know what to think, but I hope you're not lying."

* * *

Sasuke, Itachi and the various shinobi that followed them stood on the opposite side where all the Konoha ninjas stood. Sasuke stepped foreword. "This is my team, Karin: a sensory ninja, Suigetsu: a defect from hidden mist, and Juugo: don't upset him."

"Then this is Kaiyomi, Katsuna and Ruki." Itachi said. Ruki jumped off of Katsuna's shoulders and walked over to the Konoha ninjas and waved. "Hi, I'm Ruki, I'm five! Oh! Watch this!" Ruki leapt onto a building and walked up it.

Kaiyomi rushed over and pulled her down, "stop being a show off."

"Were going to help you rebuild." Sasuke said and the Konoha ninjas watched in disbelief.

Tsunade walked out a little somber from yesterday but smiled anyway. "Why are you all waiting around, fix my village! All these building aren't going to repair themselves! Get moving." They all scattered to various projects.

Hinata and Ino jumped up to a broken roof with some tiles and began talking. "That one girl, I don't like her." Ino said, "she gives me the creeps."

"I think I know the one, the girl that was holding the child, there was something wrong, it's like I could see her chakra but couldn't."

"I don't like the other one either, the one with the glasses, her outfits to close to mine!" Ino said and Hinata started laughing. "Hey I wonder where Naruto and Sakura are?"

"That's right, they never showed up did they?" Hinata said and looked out over the city.

* * *

Sakura woke up in the bed to loud snoring; she kicked her leg out and hit Naruto in the head. Naruto grabbed his head and looked around at her. "Stop snoring."

"Hey… aren't we supposed to be rebuilding today?" Naruto asked.

"We're taking the day off; I don't feel like getting up." Naruto shrugged and they both went back to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

"The building needs to be torn down and rebuilt from foundation up." Shikamaru said to Juugo who was looking at it. "There's no way we can save it."

"I'll tear it down." Juugo said and bawled up his fists and changed quickly. Roaring he slammed into the building and rushed through to the other side destroying the center portion. He turned quickly and did another rush through and stopped by Shikamaru's side. The building dropped quickly. Juugo turned back to normal and brushed his shoulders off. "Any more demolition?"

"Uh, yeah." Shikamaru said caught a bit off guard. "We have a whole block that need to come down, come on I'll show you."

When they started to walk away Sasuke and Suigetsu landed on a near by roof. Sasuke quickly went through the hand signs and set the rubble on fire. They quickly moved on and left the fire burning the wood that was left.

Down the street Kiba and Akahamaru came up from drilling holes for new support beams while Chouji set them in while his arms were enlarged. Neji and Shino took an end of a crossing I-beam and held it up to the support beams while Guy and Lee attached the bolts. Lee finished and stood up smiling. "This sure is going fast."

"It only seems that way, it's already noon and we only have support beams up on this place and a half of a building constructed down the street." Shino said quickly. "If we didn't have as many wounded it'd be going a lot faster."

There was a loud whistle and they saw Karin and Katsuna holding huge bags. "You guys hungry? We brought you food."

Katsuna set down her bag to see Chouji let go of the free standing beams which then went to fall over. She moved quickly and caught the beam and pushed it up. "Um, you're supposed to put the cement in it and let it dry before you start building."

Katsuna kept it supported and quickly summoned rocks against the beams. Lee jumped down and began thanking her while Chouji got his food and began eating. Karin watched his pace and got worried, "You don't have to shovel it in like that, it's not healthy."

"Chouji usually eats like that." Neji said jumping down and taking a box of food. "Thank you."

"Yep no problem." Karin said and Katsuna picked up one bag and pulled out some of the boxes and set them in another bag. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find Sasuke, later." Katsuna jumped up on the roof and disappeared. Karin got slightly angry but kept handing out lunch.

* * *

Itachi set the pile of wood down and looked up to see Tsunade standing over him. "Hokage, what is it?"

"I just got a report of an Akatsuki by the border with blue skin making his way very fast, would you happen to know anything about this?" Tsunade asked tapping her foot quickly on the ground.

"His name is Kisame Hoshigaki, age thirty-two, a founding member of Akatsuki like I am. He's from Hidden Mist and is one of the Seven Swordsmen. He has amazing chakra levels and is particularly found of torture like I am." Itachi said ripping the bonds on the planks of wood. "We have to find out his intentions first, then if need I'll stop him."

"Intentions?" Tsunade asked. "Aren't Akatsuki's only intentions to get the Jinchuriki?"

"I said his intentions, not theirs." Itachi took up a board and grabbed a hammer and nails. He began putting up the board up and hammering the main in. "Kisame is hell bent on fighting, he love to maim and kill. However his is loyal to me seeing as he not only respects my power, but the fact that when Akatsuki nearly fell apart four years ago and the teams temporarily dispersed, I stayed with him and ended up saving him from Kazuka."

"Does he know you're here and alive?" Tsunade asked. Itachi shrugged. "Is there a way Akatsuki would know your still alive?"

"Zetsu, the informant, is the one who saved me. He knows, he's partially loyal to me as well. He may have told Kisame, but I'm sure Kisame was originally sent here to keep a look out for the nine tails, I mean Naruto." Itachi grabbed another board and began hammering that up. "How soon will he get here?"

"Ten to fifteen minutes." Itachi dropped the hammer and dusted himself off.

"I have to go get my weapon, Kisame's bold, he'll come through the front gates. Get all the guards away or he'll shave them for the fun of it."

"Shave?" Tsunade asked as Itachi disappeared. Tsunade began to make her way to the front gates.

* * *

Karin stopped dead and dropped the bag of food, Neji and Chouji looked up at her and the rest soon noticed. Karin turned around and gathered as much air as she could. "SASUKE!"

She was able to breath in and she was joined by Sasuke and Katsuna. Sasuke grabbed her and helped her stand. "What's wrong?"

"Kisame is coming from the north. He's almost here." She said and began to breathe a bit more normally.

"Katsuna, take Karin. All of you with me, now!" Sasuke said and he began running away. The men followed quickly and made it to the front gate to see an ANBU above them. The mask turned down to them showing a weasel face. "Itachi, Kisame…"

"I know. Let me deal with him!" Itachi dropped down as Kisame landed.

"They sent a single ANBU to fight me? That's kind of pathetic." Kisame said pulling his sword. "Well come over here so I can destroy you."

Itachi lifted his mask. "Remember our last fight Kisame?"

"So, the plant wasn't lying." Kisame put his sword back. "Of course, I didn't think he was in the first place."

"Did Zetsu tell anyone else?" Itachi asked fully removing mask. "It's kind of a secret. I know how bad he can be with secrets."

"He told everyone else this, and I quote directly 'I ate him.' Then Madara nearly vomited in the next room. It was hilarious. We have a few things to talk about however." Kisame said; he pulled off his Akatsuki jacket. "Without the audience of kids if you wouldn't mind."

"Sasuke comes with us." Itachi said and headed into the village, Kisame followed as he watched Itachi grabbed Sasuke by the shoulder and lead him into the village. Itachi turned his head around, "devil's into details, Kisame."

"Madara sent Pein and Konan to go find the toad's mountain. Basically it's a wild goose chase. I just hope the goose bites them in the ass." Kisame said and mad a face at some small Genin that he passed. "Is everyone here scared so easily?"

"They were under constant attack for two days. Give them a break." Sasuke said.

"Madara also knows you're here, Sasuke. Pein saw you as your traveled, and they saw you too Itachi, but Zetsu little line took care of that." Madara looked up at the sign and the fence. "Whoa, you guys have your own district?"

"I want to tear it down." Itachi said and Sasuke looked over at him. "Do you really want to keep all the bad memories, Sasuke?"

"No, I suppose not." Sasuke said and dropped Itachi's hand. "Before we go any further, if you see the nine tails, are you going to attempt to take him?"

"I don't see any point as Zetsu and I are separating from Akatsuki. We've decided to join your side Itachi. We've figured it be better to fight and die against Madara and Pein then deal with them for the rest of our lives." Itachi stopped and turned around to look at him. "Itachi, you and Sasuke have informants in Akatsuki now; I'm supposed to stay in the area, so I figured I'd bum a bed off of you. Also, according to Madara, I'm supposed to use Sasuke to find the Jinchuriki… oh there he is."

"Akatsuki!" Naruto yelled rushing foreword and Sasuke caught him. "What's going on he's…"

"Naruto, he's our informant in Akatsuki now." Sasuke repeated. "Come on, let's go inform Tsunade."

"I'll go get Sakura then." Naruto said running back to their house. As soon as he was gone Sasuke turned around. "Kisame, as soon as you get in touch with Madara, tell him your staying on the outskirts of town out of detection and I'm the Akatsuki sky for Konoha, I'll find random tidbits of information to throw at him, just don't tell anyone else. It's stays between the three of us."

"Sasuke, if Madara find out what you're doing…"

"Then I'll die. I know." Sasuke said quietly as Sakura and Naruto ran over. Sasuke smiled back over at them. "Let's go."


	10. Chapter 10

Naruto opened the door to Tsunade's office with Sasuke and Sakura right behind him to find Tsunade growling up at three rock ninjas. "I'm telling you even if one of them did know anything about the Raikage's brother they didn't do it!"

Sasuke pushed through, "I was the one who capture the eight tails. I, however, didn't hit him hard enough to keep him out for the days needed to exorcise the beast. He should be fine and back in your village by now."

"We'll still have to ask you to come with us," one said. "Just so the Raikage can question you."

"Tell him this, if the leader of Akatsuki finds out I went missing for a few days, he'll start burning down the world to find me. I think that would be a bad idea. Ah, yea," Sasuke said turning a bit cheerier to the Hokage, "We have an informant in Akatsuki now."

"Sasuke why did you help Akasuki?" Tsunade yelled at him.

"Because at the time, I didn't know any better… and I wanted to see the world burn with my own two eyes." He said and took a step to leave and the ninja from rock caught him by his shirt. "I suggest you let me go. After all, I was the one who single handedly took him down."

"Are you threatening me, punk?"

"He's warning." Suigetsu said pushing his way in with Juugo. "Now you let Sasuke go, or I'll cut you in half."

Sasuke moved quickly and pinned the man against the wall. "Leave Konoha, tell the Raikage and the eight tails I'm sorry but I had to do it and fucking leave me alone already!"

Sasuke disappeared and Naruto went to go but Juugo stopped him. "Suigetsu, you should go after him."

"Alright, later then." He said and jumped out of the Hokage's window. Tsunade pulled out a piece of paper and began writings. "I'll have you take a letter to him, tell him everything that happened and that if his brother doesn't return in two weeks I'll send Sasuke."

"Thank you, Hokage." Said the girl taking the letter and putting it away. "Come on, let's get you some food after that kid bullied you."

"It's not funny!" The rock ninjas left leaving Juugo, Naruto and Sakura. Tsunade looked up at Naruto and set her head down on her fist. "Any ideas?"

"Sasuke needs time, he's spent the past five years harboring an un-needed hate, and for the past three years letting it run his life. He needs time and compassion, right?" Naruto asked and Tsunade nodded. "Let's go find Sasuke then!"

* * *

Suigetsu knocked on the apartment door, "Sasuke, I know you're in there. Open up."

Katusna opened the door and walked out. "He's really upset, what happened? He won't tell me anything."

"Some rock nins tried to take him in for capturing the eight tails." Suigetsu said quietly. "That damn Bumblebee guy escaped though, he left about right…"

"I saw him leave, the idiot summoned the demon right there, they got a good chunk of the beast out." Katsuna replied. "Sasuke also wanted me to take this to Tsunade, but will you do it, I'm going to make sure he doesn't destroy anything."

"Quick question, what happened to the light fluffy-ness?" He said taking a folded piece of paper from her. "Normally wouldn't you like… try to make it rain cookies?"

"Different times call for different moods, Suigetsu. Please hurry." Suigetsu nodded and took off. Katsuna reached for the doorknob and turned to see Naruto and Sakura landing. "I think you two will just make it worse, please, come back later."

Katsuna opened the door and walked in shutting it behind her. The lock could easily be heard. "That's the girl that everyone else is kind of scared of." Sakura said quietly.

"She doesn't look that scary. Well… Maybe we should go get Itachi." Naruto suggested.

* * *

"They're all pissing me off. What right do they have to judge me?" Sasuke said as he shoved a cookie into his mouth. He sat on the edge of his bed staring at the floor. "It's not like any of them have even come close to what I've been through."

"Maybe it's because you helped hunt a Jinchuriki, so they're worried you might try and hunt their Jinchuriki. Also, you openly invited a current Akatsuki member into your home, and he's actually tried to hunt their Jinchuriki before. It's just if one little thing goes wrong and he gets hurt because of you, and then everything will fall down, then the world will be annihilated slowly." Katsuna said trying to think from a different perspective.

"I won't let that happen."

"Then don't let it bother you, they probably just need time." Katsuna said. "I was thrown out of my village in Snow Country when an assassin tried to kill our village leader, she failed and was captured. She told me what the village leader was doing, he was poisoning the stream water, I killed the leader and saved her. We've been together ever since."

"Kaiyomi? How do you know she wasn't lying?"

"I can tell. Anyway, about two weeks later, they found us to be telling the truth. You've only been here for a few days, stop going all emo on people, Sasuke." Sasuke pushed her gently and laughed. Katsuna pushed back. "Look at you, you are emo."

* * *

"This is from Sasuke." Suigetsu said handing it over. "He's hiding in his apartment right now, but he'll be fine."

Tsunade took the letter and browsed through it quickly. She smiled somewhat. "Go tell him alright, but that I don't like him telling me what I'm going to do."

"Sasuke bosses everyone around, he even told Orochimaru what to do and he did it, and there was peace… for a while." Suigetsu laughed as he headed out the door.

* * *

"Sasuke's been through a lot, give him some space." Itachi said sitting on the couch with Kisame flipping through books on chakra and ancient techniques. "He's not a little boy anymore, we can't comfort him at every chance. Anyway, he's been through this type of harassment before and came out fine."

"Yeah but what the village did…" Sakura tried to speak but couldn't finish.

"I was talking about our parents; they didn't think he was any good until I started distancing myself. Every time he would go to bed, and wake up and be completely recovered, the only thing he didn't recover from was when I started shoving him off. Hm… Kisame here's water techniques."

"About time something I could use." The large shark-like man said taking the book.

"Anyway, he'll be fine, just go and relax, or it might be smarter to try learning some instant kill moves, they have a higher chance of hurting most Akatsuki members." Itachi flipped through and pulled out a small, old scroll. He reached out a hand to give it to Naruto. "Biju chakra information."


	11. Chapter 11

"What's this meeting about?" Ino asked down the row, everyone shrugged or shook their heads. All the available ninja in the village were assembled in the academy's biggest classroom by Tsunade. "I'm supposed to be helping rebuild the store front."

"Could be something about the Akatsuki that's here." Chouji said.

"We've fought him a couple times, he's very formidable. He was able to turn the desert into an ocean." Neji said scowling. "I can't believe Lady Tsunade let him into the village."

The doors burst opened and Tsunade came in with a scroll that she spread over the chalkboard and pinned up. She than pulled the teacher's chair off to the side and sat down. Ino stood up, "Lady Tsunade, what are we here for?"

"I don't know, Sasuke called the meeting." She said honestly. Carefully she watched the door until she saw shadows coming down the hallway and heard strange commenting.

"Admit it, you're just a pretty boy with a good trick. You'd never be any good in real battle like I am." Kisame's voice came over.

"And you just a fish with a big sword, one use of my tick and you'd be fried on the ground." Itachi said as the two walked in and leaned against the wall. "Plus, your blue."

"You wear mascara."

"Jackass."

"Asshole."

"Genocidal maniac!" The two yelled at each other at the same time and leaned back against the wall laughing. Itachi stopped, "this is why we were the best team."

"You said it, oy, where's you little brother at?" Itachi shrugged and looked over at the ninjas looking at them. "What?"

"They're staring at you two." Sasuke said walking in with an old file and showing it to Tsunade, "your grandfather's personal notes on someone, hope you don't mind me borrowing it."

"Uh no, go ahead." Tsunade said trying to find out what it is. Sasuke pulled open the drawer and grabbed a black marker. He circled the Akatsuki base where Madara was at and the village in Rain.

Breaking the seal on the folder he began talking. "Akatsuki right now is down to…." He counted his hand while mouth the names, "five members. They have two leaders, the one who show himself, and the one working the background."

"Sasuke I hope you know what your doing, the more they know the more likely they are to be killed. Why do you think Itachi hasn't opened his mouth yet."

"He may be old but he isn't invincible Kisame. Kisame I our agent in Akatsuki now. We have another named Zetsu who spies for Akatsuki, he's a plant like creature that phases through almost anything. Konan is a girl who controls paper, Pein is owner of the Rinnegan eye that can let him see through different corpes. Pein and Konan cover the leadership for up front Akatsuki, both were trained by Jiraiya years ago so they know some things about Konoha.

"Lastly the leader is someone Tsunade would remember her grandfather telling nightmares about." Sasuke stopped and began flipping through the file and pulled out a picture. "He was the leader of the Uchiha clan for years and founded Konoha with the first and second Hokages, after fighting with their clan for a while."

Sasuke held up an old photo. "Madara has the intent to destroy the world, Pein has the intent to destroy the world and then save it. Both are deranged and deadly, Madara more then Pein.

"Currently Madara has a different intent as he's letting Pein go crazy doing whatever he feels like basically. After Itachi and I fought Madara saved and told me some unique things, and then I over heard some more. He's currently fixated on me." Sasuke pulled out a scroll. "Everything I know, everything I've been able to get out of anyone on Akatsuki including Itachi and Kisame is in here. Powers, favorite Jutsus, favorite attack patterns. Naruto!"

Sasuke tossed him the scroll, "I'm leaving it to you to beat them if they come here, it won't be long before they replenish their numbers. If I stay here, I pose a threat of brining Madara here when you aren't ready. Therefore, I'm leaving and going to him, and I will keep him away as much as possible. I don't think I'll be coming back alive."

"Sasuke." Itachi said pinning his little brother against the wall. "It is not your place to sacrifice yourself for Konoha."

"I'm not; I'm not letting you die on my behalf again." Sasuke used mass chidori and shocked Itachi off and vanished.

Itachi sat up on the ground and put his hand in his hands and took a deep breath. "Kisame, go get Kaiyomi."

"Itachi," Tsunade said helping him up, "you can take who ever you need to get him back."

"He's given us an opportunity, were going to use it. Kisame go!" Itachi bellowed and the Akatsuki disappeared. "I'm training Naruto starting now, Sasuke doesn't want Madara to win anymore then I do. I'm honoring what maybe his last request."

* * *

"You're leaving marks on the trees! Find new ones and start over, all one hundred repetitions." Itachi order and Naruto jumped to a new tree and began hopping back and forth between them as fast as he could. "Push yourself harder, you're the fox, command some chakra from him and tame it! All the other Jinchuriki's have pacts with their demons, haven't you made a pact with Kyuubi yet?"

"No!" Naruto screamed still going as fast as he could between the two trees.

"You have something he needs, if you die, he dies to. We're going to make an agreement, then."

"**Pushing him hard**?" Zetsu asked coming up in the tree above where Itachi leaned. "You're a cruel teacher Itachi; he's been on half the forest so far."

"This is tame still, cruel is far more painful. Any updates?" Itachi asked turning around. "Also, thank you for helping us."

"**Anything to shut up those drama queens**. Pein has located the mountain. **He and Konan have not yet arrived. **They should be there by tonight and reveal Kisame, **unless Kisame has no knowledge of the boy being here.**"

"Actually, I told them that he was sent away by the time I got here." Kisame said landing next to them, Kaiyomi appeared next to Itachi.

"It's important I take it to call me out into the filthy woods. So unclean…" Kaiyomi said and then turned to Zetsu. "Ruki said she was old enough to learn how to kill with just chakra if you have time."

"Kaiyomi, I need you to bring out the demon fox in Naruto, we need to have a little talk with it." Itachi said quietly so Naruto couldn't hear. "Do you think you could pull out enough chakra to manifest a little fox and then put it back in?"

"That's kindergarten work, Itachi. Of course I can." Kaiyomi said confidently.

Itachi whistled and Naruto stopped. "Come on Naruto, that's enough for now."


	12. Chapter 12

"Did you ask Tsunade about this?" Naruto asked as Itachi cleared off his living room table. Itachi grabbed Naruto and sat down on the table. "I take it this doesn't leave the room.

Kaiyomi stepped foreword and held up three scrolls. "I need you to remove your jacket and shirt and lay back. Also, I don't know if this is painful or not so try not to move however horrible it may be."

"What if Kyuubi gets out?"

Kisame laughed, "that's what Itachi's for, Uchiha are famous for their power over the beasts." Kisame hit Itachi in the shoulder and smiled.

"Don't worry Naruto, worse case scenario, you die, solving everything." Kaiyomi said cheerily. Naruto took of his jacket and shirt and tossed them on the couch and Kaiyomi looked at his seal. "This was done by the Fourth Hokage, right? This is amazing work but only a partial, it looks like it was meant to be done over at some point by the amount of fading. I may have to attempt to reseal this when we're through."

"When this is done we should be able to remove most of the seal, if it goes right." Itachi said. "Lie back Naruto so Kaiyomi can do this quickly."

Nervously Naruto followed the order and Kaiyomi opened the three scrolls and crossed them over the seal. Kaiyomi flew through seals and slammed her hand down on Naruto's stomach and pulled it back and slowly a small stream of red chakra flowed out. She pulled back and began forming the chakra slowly with her other hand and cut off the stream. She backed off and removed her chakra from the looming red chakra.

Suddenly the chakra pulled together into a small red fox with nine swirling tails sitting on Naruto's stomach. "I find this partially humiliating, Naruto."

"Don't blame me it's Itachi's idea." Naruto said pointing.

The fox looked up and laughed, "An Uchiha… how predictable. Say, you look like that one friend you always get so upset over Naruto, Sasuke…" Itachi frowned severely. "Naruto's called out up to four tails to try and get him back, and would have killed Orochimaru if he had released the fifth tail."

"Kyuubi…" Itachi said walking over and sitting down next to Kaiyomi, "I have a deal for you." Itachi reach inside his pouch and pulled out a scroll and opened it. "Read it allowed."

"Fine… On pain of an eternity spent fighting in the stomach of the death god, Naruto Uzumaki and the mystical nine tailed fox agree on the following terms. The seal is to be weakened greatly to allow the free movement of chakra, that Naruto will always consciously control… Then two blanks." The fox said and snarled up at Itachi. "What's in it for you?"

"We have a higher chance of saving Sasuke. Do you agree?" Itachi asked and held out a small bowl of ink. Kyuubi reached his paw up and burned it with his chakra. "Naruto, a thumbprint would be fine."

Naruto didn't think twice at the words 'saving Sasuke' and made his mark on the paper. Kyuubi laughed. "Exactly how are you going to enforce this punishment if one of us fails?"

"Seeing as Naruto can't fail on his end, it's just locking you in." Itachi unraveled the rest of the scroll showing a seal somewhat opposite to Naruto's. Kyuubi jumped back and landed on the floor. "Recognize it, you were sealed into Naruto with this."

"The Death God seal of the Fourth Hokage! Where did you get that?" Kyuubi hissed up at him, his tail began hitting the walls and leaving little scorch marks.

"The Third Hokage's notes; Tsunade doesn't keep a very good eye on them. Now you understand the seriousness of the agreement, and well hold up our end of the bargain." Itachi said trying to negotiate further. Kaiyomi removed the scrolls and packed them away. "If you want, I'm sure she can even keep the bridge open so you could come out in that form."

"At least I could toss my knowledge about… Naruto has been more then good as a host. Alright then, do as you will." Kyuubi said and calmed down some. "But I will warn you, my chakra, the power it provides, is seductive. The more you use it, the more you have to use it… of course, you're already well aware of that."

"One more thing, Kyuubi, in life and death situations, you are still not allowed to take control, if Naruto and you die, it just means the worlds safer." Itachi stressed. The fox growled and turned into pure chakra and disappeared inside Naruto. Kaiyomi quickly did some signs and one again jabbed her hand down on Naruto's stomach.

"Can't you be gentler, that really hurts and you have nails!" Naruto said angrily. Kaiyomi smiled and pulled her hand back. "Is that it?" She jammed her hand down again. "That's mean!"

* * *

"I said you could come but I didn't say you could cling to me." Sasuke said trying to wrangle his arm from Katsuna. "With you on my arm, we go slower."

"But it's so dark, and the moon's not out yet. Can't you light a branch on fire or something?" Katsuna asked as Sasuke stopped on a tree branch. "Did I say something wrong?"

Sasuke yanked his arm away. "If we have a light someone may see us, which isn't what we want. Do you insist on cling to me?"

"It'll make me feel safer." Katsuna cooed lightly. "I know it's a hassle, but it really scares me."

Sasuke put his hand over his mouth and turned away to think quickly. He held out his hand, "it's the quickest way; any other way would cause one of us to slow down."

Katsuna took his hand and they began on their way. "So, why didn't you tell your team?"

"I wasn't going to tell anyone. You just happened to catch me at the gates. By the way, what were you doing there?" Sasuke asked.

"I was looking for a map of the city. I hope the kiosk would have it."

"That's the guard post, Konoha doesn't have a kiosk." Sasuke said and looked down at the limbs, "can you go faster then this?" Katsuna nodded quickly and they sped up even more. "Why didn't you just go around and ask for directions? They could have told you where everything was."

"I just wanted to take a tour of the city, I doubt one of them would have liked to play tour guide." Katsuna looked down. "I can go about twice as fast as this."

"Most Jounin can't do that." Sasuke said thinking about it.

"Can you do it?" Sasuke moved faster and jerk Katsuna foreword until she caught up.

"I've never been this fast, I have to use my chakra to keep this going." Sasuke said. He looked around. "Everything's a blur when you go this fast."

"Yeah, but we'll get there by morning." Katsuna chimed. Although it couldn't be seen Sasuke nodded and began to think of the road ahead of him.


	13. Chapter 13

"Are you sure, usually when Naruto goes under major training he has a chance of releasing Kyuubi." Yamato said as he and Sakura and Sai were preparing for the worse of Itachi's training. "If Kyuubi gets out…"

"I have the Kyuubi under control, however Naruto will need opponents later, so come back in the after noon." Itachi said as Naruto reached the mountain. "Naruto, run back and use all you can to destroy the ground below me."

"All four types of chakra?" Naruto asked and he could make out Itachi nodding. Naruto began running and gathered his fist. 'Kyuubi!' '_**Alright Naruto.**_' Naruto reeled back his fist and gathered the natural chakra as Kyuubi began giving him his coating him in a light red coat.

"That's kyuubi's chakra!" Yamato said worried.

"Good." Itachi said as Naruto was fast approaching; he jumped up and heard the loud smash and watched as the entire area was covered in smoke. Landing Itachi looked around seeing Naruto's chakra and walked over. "Let's get out of this smoke."

* * *

"So, where'd you go to?" Madara asked as Sasuke sat down across from him. "And what happened to the rest of your team?"

"We went back to Katsuna's River Temple. It's in the south of Fire country. A prophet told me my team would betray me, so I killed them." Sasuke said heartlessly. "So, what's been happening?"

"It appears the toads have hidden the nine tails and the eight tails have made it back safely to his village." Madara said lightly, he moved his head as if he was thinking then slammed his fist down into the table shattering his end. "We're so close and then it all goes to hell."

"What do I need to do?" Sasuke asked quickly.

"Eagar to go back out, eh, Sasuke? Would you mind me asking why you didn't destroy Konoha?"

"I figured Pein would have already destroyed it, I'll wait till they rebuild and annihilate it." Cooly Sasuke looked up. "Listen if I'm not going anywhere, I'm going to lie down, I haven't slept in two days. We'll talk more when I wake up." Sasuke stood up and stretched holding his arms behind his head. "Don't wake me up, got it?"

Madara watched as he walked out of the room and shut the hallway door behind him. Zetsu slowly rose out of the ground and looked up at Madara. "Kisame just contacted me, **he says the Kyuubi is now in Konoha. **He's asking for back up."

"We'll go… tomorrow. After Sasuke and his little girlfriend wake up." Madara said and pulled a book out of his coat and sat down to read it. "Anything else of interest Zetsu?"

"**Kisame said it seems that the Kyuubi and the Jinchuriki have made a pact agreeing to protect themselves. **He may be dangerous now, that's it. **I'll be within ear shot, Madara.**" Zetsu said and phased underground and began to travel and came up in Sasuke's room and looked at him then over at Katsuna who was passed out in the corner. "Itachi's been training Naruto day and night. **He told me to tell them Naruto was there. **They've got a trap set up. **But Madara won't leave with out you."**

"Thanks for the info. If you can get in contact with them… tell Itachi he's an asshole who's undermining my plan." Sasuke laughed. Zetsu looked strangely at him and went into the ground. Sasuke nudge Katsuna with his foot. "Katsuna…" She opened her eyes wearily and looked at him, "do you have a way to make us sleep for a really long time?"

"Um…" Katsuna pulled out her ninja pouch and opened it up dumping the contents on the floor. Shuffling through small packets of pills she picked up two dark pills and tossed them at him. "Kaiyomi's specialty, puts you in a coma for about fourteen hours."

"Are you sure?"

Katsuna nodded while shoveling all the packets back in the bag. "One pills enough, she always insist on people taking two though." Sasuke opened the pack and swallowed one of the pills. He tossed the packet over to her. "Why do I need to take one?"

"Just do it." Sasuke said and turned around. He looked at the wall light about to hit it and fell over on the floor asleep. Katsuna set the packet down while standing. Carefully she picked Sasuke up and laid him on the bed.

She turned off the lights and sat down next to the bed and felt around for the pill and took it.

* * *

"Hokage, Sakura, Sai and myself are concerned about the way Itachi is training Naruto." Yamato said, Tsunade sat in her chair and looked over at them. "He's teaching Naruto ANBU patterns of thought and some of our last resort moves."

"You mean the 'kill all' techniques? Itachi's rather good with those. I don't see a problem with that. I was hoping to get Naruto through the chunin exam soon so I can promote him to Jounin." Tsunade said looking over at them. "Or if I can get him to go through the training ANBU, he would be helpful in both. As for your concerns, I know that your afraid the ANBU secrets will leak out, but remember, it's Naruto."

"Naruto's using Kyuubi's chakra!" Tsunade stopped and Yamato continued. "He's using it freely along with the training he's learn from the toads and has created a destructive power I've never seen before. The chakra can even manifest itself out into a small Kyuubi."

"Itachi has already informed me of that part, and I agreed. Naruto's going to have to learn to use the power that's in him and control it." Tsunade said. "I know that you three are worried, but from now on, Naruto is not any of your concern. He's a shinobi of the village before anything and an asset we have to protect."

* * *

Kisame sat down on the couch and watched as Itachi sat Naruto down in the corner. "You completely wore him out. Maybe we should have just offered the other Jinchurikis a day training with you."

"Funny, Kisame." Suddenly Kisame looked up. "Is it Zetsu?"

Kisame smiled. "Yeah, I'll tell him… So that's giving us more time… Okay, keep an eyes on them." Kismae turned to Itachi. "So, Sasuke got your little idea…"

"Yeah, and?"

"He said, and I quote, 'tell him he's an asshole who's undermining my plan.' Zetsu said then he took a sleeping pill and collapsed."

"They were already there though; do you know how fast they must have been going? Maybe Sasuke's more prepared then I thought." Itachi said and sat down, "I'm worried about our fight with Madara."

"He's one man Itachi." Kisame said and then stopped, "with Pein and Konan…"

"He has part of the eight tails so if he got a hold of Naruto, he could get the Kyuubi."

"Then we need a fail safe plan."

"If it comes down to it, I'll have to kill Naruto."


	14. Chapter 14

Sasuke turned over and opened his eyes to see the light coming in from the hallway with a figure there. "It's about time you got up, Sasuke. It's been over a day." Madara drifted down the hall some letting all the light in. "We're having dinner soon, if you want to eat you can."

"Fine." Sasuke yelled in reply and looked down to see Katsuna half way under the bed still passed out. He reached down and shook her arm and Katsuna opened her eyes. "Did you hear Madara?"

"Yeah," She said pushing herself out from under the bed. She sat up and sighed, "so I guess were almost out of time?"

"Yeah." Sasuke sat up and got off the bed. Katsuna got up and dusted herself off, "don't worry, we'll be in Akatsuki coats soon enough."

"Really, they don't look that comfortable." Katsuna said as she followed Sasuke out into the main room. Madara stood around with the first Pein and Konan. Konan noticed them and pointed them out.

Madara turned around, "your coats are on the table, although I don't understand what good a person without any chakra can be."

Sasuke smiled, "Katsuna, release your cloak." Katsuna tugged on his arm and gave him a look. "It's okay, they're with us."

"If you say so, Sasuke." Katsuna put her hands together integer and focused quickly. "Release." A small dust storm kicked up and a swirl of chakra came out and died down.

"Impressive…" Madara said and scratched his head. "Might I ask how you do that?"

"To be honest, I don't know," Katsuna shrugged. "I've been doing it ever since I was little. Hey, you said there be food."

"Katsuna, not now. We'll just have to eat later." Sasuke said and grabbed the coats, he tossed one at her and they put them on. "Madara, Pein, I have been thinking, which one of you is in charge?"

"That's a stupid question, I am of course." Madara said. "Pein's a regular member like everyone else. I just keep him in reserve unless I need him."

Sasuke saw what he wanted to see, Pein's face in anger. It was quickly dissolved away when Konan grabbed his arm and shook her head. That's when Sasuke hatched a new plan. "I just wanted to know who I'm supposed to take orders from. Come on Katsuna, let's go find something to eat."

"Alright." Katsuna began following Sasuke as they came into the kitchen and rounded the corner to the small fridge. Sasuke grabbed Katsuna's head and began whispering in her ear. "Listen, Pein isn't happy about being order around by Madara, he has a god complex and we need to play on that. Also, Konan is in love with Pein, you can tell by the way she grabbed him. Tomorrow I want you to pull her strings about it, make her try and flush the real Pein out of hiding. Got it?"

"Got it." Katsuna said quickly. Sasuke let her go and patted her on the head. "Do you want rice balls?"

"Sure, but you have to make enough for them." Sasuke said and Katsuna poked her head out the door. "I'm making rice balls, anyone want some?"

* * *

Naruto stood out of breath in front of the Uchiha district. "Good." Itachi said landing on top of the sign. "You can keep that speed up for a while. You'll need it, endurance is the best way to fight a long battle, which we may have."

"I know it' important to train, but can we take a break, five ten hours…" Naruto asked.

"You've got ten minutes, and then we'll work on some new Jutsus." Naruto collapsed on the round where he was and began to slow his breathing. "I have to go get the scrolls, I'll be back in a couple minutes."

"Yep." Naruto held up a thumbs up and laid back onto the dirt. He suddenly saw a shadow over him and looked around to see Sakura standing there with a basket. 'Oh please tell me she didn't make me more of her medicine balls.' "Hi Sakura."

"Hi Naruto, I figured I could help out a bit." She opened her basket as Naruto flipped over on his knees. Sakura sat down. "I brought ramen."

"RAMEN!" Naruto yelled happily. "I haven't eaten since breakfast."

"Why not? Wait, let me guess you were training." Naruto nodded as Sakura handed him a bowl with a lid on it. She tossed him a pair of chop sticks and pulled out her own bowl. "Why do you really need to train this hard?"

"Sasuke is risking his life for us… I want to make it count." Naruto said quietly. "He's owes us nothing and yet he's willing to sacrifice his own life for the village."

"No, Naruto, he's willing to die for a chance at taking down Akatsuki. I don't really think his concern is just the village." Sakura said quietly.

"I don't care, this is our one chance and he's given it to us." Naruto said diligently and threw down the chopsticks and drank the Ramen down. "Thanks for the food Sakura, but I have to get back to training."

"Naruto I…" Sakura stopped and turned away. "All this training isn't healthy. You need down time."

"I'll have down time when Akatsuki is gone. All have all the down time in the world." Naruto said and began to walk away, swiftly Kyuubi's chakra floated out and formed in front of Sakura. It waited for some distance between himself and Naruto and began to talk. "Hello… You looked a little shocked."

"Um… if you're out here then…"

"This is barely any chakra at all from me, like girl. I'm going to warn you now, do not interfere, if Naruto gets killed I will die along with him, so things need to go according to Itachi's plan, or he will kill Naruto for the sake of the world. I would rather see myself destroyed then manipulated like Madara used to do…"

"So, what do you want me to do?"

"Keep out of Naruto's way. You'll hold him back." The fox disappeared.


	15. Chapter 15

Over the past hour the formation had changed, Madara was in the lead by himself, Sasuke had dropped to the middle with the lead Pein and in the far back Katsuna had found a place next to Konan. Katsuna smiled as they were trailing a good five feet behind the last Pein and couldn't be heard at their levels of voice. "So, you like Pein, don't you Konan?"

Konan stiffly looked at her, her face completely unchanged. "And you like Sasuke, don't you?"

"I asked you first." Katsuna said and smiled over at her. "I was just wondering, because… which one do you date?"

"Huh?" Konan asked. She stopped and held Katsuna back too and let them Peins get ahead. "To tell you the truth, I really don't date any of them. Nagito's not even among them, he's locked away safely somewhere. He's the one I would date, his got this beautiful long black hair and his eyes… oh they just pierce your heart. But really, I only see his real body when he's out working on new corpses."

"You know, if he loved you, you'd be locked away in that room too." Katsuna said. She sat down on a limb and offered the larger area to Konan. Konan quickly turned up a head, "don't worry, we can catch up, worse case I have to carry you going full speed."

"So," Konan said sitting down. "Do you have any ideas, I really want to get closer to him, but I can't this way."

"Strike."

"Strike, you mean like refuse to work, or clean, or what?" Konan asked.

"What do you mean clean? You don't clean for him too do you?" Katsuna asked quickly.

"Well, we live together in a small apartment in Rain, sometimes it does get annoying being so close… yet… now I sound like a broken record. But, he lives in this very tiny room with all his calculations and plans, I have to send his food in through a slot in the door, I collect the plates when he sends them out. Luckily when I'm gone he keeps a stash of frozen foods and a microwave or he'd starve." Konan said quietly and curled her legs up to her chest and laid her head down. "If I had my say I'd throw away all those corpses."

"Then strike, let him now you mean business. You are a woman; command some attention every now and then!" Katsuna said standing up tall. "Make him cook food for you in his real body!"

"You know your right. Where does he get off using me?" Konan said standing with her. "Let's go catch up to them so I can give him a piece of my mind!"

* * *

A Pein looked behind himself and saw the empty spaces. The first Pein up front turned to Madara. "Konan has fallen behind; we should stop and let her catch up."

"No! It's her fault for being slow, she'll catch up eventually." Madara said and Sasuke turned over to the first Pein and hopped closer and held him back a bit. Madara kept hoping away. Sasuke smirked, "I wanted to talk to you about something, Pein."

"And what would that be?" The first Pein asked as the rest of the corpses kept going after Madara. Sasuke looked ahead and Pein saw his direction, "what about Madara?"

"He's getting old, isn't he, and yet he's using past grudges to ignite fires. You seem highly impatient so I'll get to the point, is it you or he that wants to take over the world?"

"Does it matter? I have to get it done anyway." He jumped to the next branch.

"So you are his bitch." Pein stopped and turned around looking at Sasuke. "I'm not ignorant, I can tell you hate him, I was just wondering what you wanted to do about it. I mean, you already have Rain right, what more do you need?" Sasuke took off and quickly passed all the Peins to the front with Madara.

* * *

The room was dark except for the few small candles lit on various shelves and books. Two white Rinnigan eyes opened to the darkness. A dark laughter filled the stiff air. "He's giving me my chance…" Suddenly and alarm went off. Nagito flipped the light switch and walked over all the books and opened the microwave to pull out a bowl of soup. He grabbed a spoon and shoved some in his mouth but dropped the spoon, "damn that's hot..."

* * *

Karin jumped down off the roof with Suigetsu and Juugo behind her. "Hokage, they're coming." Tsunade turned away from Naruto and Itachi quickly and looked at her. "We've got maybe fifteen minutes; they've seemed to stop at the edge of town."

"You three split up and get everyone else; we're confronting them on the edge of town!" Tsunade looked down at Naruto. "Let's go you two. The rest will follow."

"Wait, we're coming too!" Saukra and Sai yelled jumping out behind one of the buildings. They stopped short of them and Tsunade nodded as they took to the roof tops.

"Remember, under no circumstances can they take Naruto alive." Tsunade said and Sakura looked to the ground remembering what the fox had said.


	16. Chapter 16

Madara, Sasuke and the Peins landed in the trees across from the five Konoha ninjas that stood in front of them. Madara looked down through the mask and snickered, "You're alive, Itachi. Well this just means I get to see you and Sasuke… Sasuke!"

Sasuke jumped down next to Itachi and threw off the Akatsuki coat and pulled his sword. "Think of this as a little intervention Madara. You've lived too long, it's time to die."

"I figured you betray me, that's why I asked Konan to take out your little girlfriend at my word. I just have to wait until she gets here." Madara laughed gently. "Pein, take them out."

* * *

"You know who the real problem is here, Madara." Konan said as she and Katsuna sat at a dinner in a side town. She shoved a fork full of pie into her mouth and laughed. "He told me to kill you when he gives me the order, ha! If he wants you dead he can do it himself. He's the reason Nagito and I never get any time to ourselves, he's always having to conduct meetings and all this stuff."

"That must really suck. At least when you get back you'll have all your emotions ready to express!" Katsuna said happily. Konan nodded. "We should have a sleep over!"

"Well, there's really no room in my apartment."

"Come back to Konoha, we'll just kick Sasuke out of his apartment." Katsuna laughed.

"Just one thing left to do." Konan said. She stood up and took of her Akatsuki jacket. "Hey, waitress, do you think you could throw this away for me?"

"Mine too!" Katsuna said lifting it off her body.

* * *

"There's a funny thing Madara, I've had Katsuna talking to her, and Katsuna can be horribly persuasive. I'll doubt if there going to show up, they'll probably be in some random town shopping." Sasuke said, he slowly pointed his sword up, "I have no problems with Pein, just with you Madara, now come coward."

"Boy you don't know who I am." Madara said and was suddenly standing where Sasuke was as he was hit against the ground. Managing to grab a hand he flipped over and lunged calling mass chidori around him. Itachi threw Naruto back away from the fight and pulled a kunai at Madara and got him to jump back. "Come on, Itachi, I know you don't fight much anymore but a kunai?"

"I wasn't aiming at you. It was a signal." Kisame shoved his sword up through the ground and barely missed Madara. Crawling out he held it tightly and smiled. "Hey boss, I decided to quit."

"So both you and Zetsu have betrayed me." Madara said. Sasuke snuck around and pulled a Pein close, "this is your chance, you don't need Madara, help us destroy him."

"And what about Akatsuki?" Pein asked as he watched Naruto appear in front of Madara and slam him into the ground only to see that the Madara was a clone. "It's all I have."

"What about Rain, what about Konan?" Sasuke asked and jumped down and blocked an attack to Sakura. Madara dodged Sasuke's sword and punched him square in the stomach sending him flying. Itachi tried to him Madara but was met with the same fate.

"Seriously, who do you children think you're dealing with?" Madara asked, "Come on now, I'm getting bored." Tsunade stepped up and bite her thumb and began making hand signs when she was hit in the face and knocked backwards. "Are you going to summon that giant slug, do you what I could do to her?"

"I'm gonna kill you." Tsunade roared and threw a punch at him that went through his chest. 'What in the world…'

Madara kicked her off. "Let's see, children, no threat, Kisame…" Madara appeared behind the large blue man an kicked him foreword on to the dirt. "I think I'll actually kill you."

"Rasengan!" Naruto cried and hit Madara in the back. Madara quickly escaped. "Stop jumping away!" Slowly the red chakra began to cover Naruto. '_**Naruto, I'm going to teach you something now, something you can only do with wind chakra…' **_'I'm listening.' Naruto waited a minute and got a smile on his face.

Madara jumped up on the branch next to Pein, "didn't I tell you guys to fight? Why are you so useless Pein? Now go get the Jinchuriki."

"No, I'm out Madara. I have Rain, but more then that, I have Konan. Neither of which you care for. I'm going to be the best leader Rain has ever had." Pein's bodies said at the same time. "Ruling the world might be nice, but for now, I think I'll be happy seeing you die."

The six bodies lunged at Madara who flew from their grasps and caught Naruto who was still standing talking with the fox. "Listen, I'd love to stay and chat but for some reason, he just got easy to capture. I'll destroy you…" Madara turned around to see a kunai in his back being forced down deep. Sakura looked up at him.

"You're weakest when you're gloating." She pounded him in the back with her fist and sent both of them flying. Madara skidded against the ground and got to his feet. "I have no chance fighting you, but at least I can say I did some damage."

"Little girl, stay to of this." The first Pein said. "Madara is our monster, let us destroy him."

The Peins surrounded Madara; Madara began laughing slowly and suddenly two of the bodies were burst away impaled on near by branches. One was thrown into another and both hit Itachi who was just about to stand up. The Naraka body grabbed Madara and tried to speak but was hit away quickly onto Tsunade.

Madara turned to the last body left, Nagito's former best friend who was killed, Yahiko's body. "I hope I can mutilate this one beyond recognition, this was your old friend correct?"

'_**Naruto, now!' **_'Got it Kyuubi!' Naruto quickly held out a hand and began siphoning chakra into it. '_**Now is the time you out do the fourth Hokage!**_'' Shut up already!' Rasengan formed followed by the addition of his wind chakra. "Shuriken Rasengan!"

"Do you expect to hit me with that?" Madara asked throwing the first body away. "Try, come on, free shot!"

It was a burst of brilliant yellow light; Naruto appeared plunging the Rasengan into Madara's back. The man fell on the ground heavily. Naruto flashed over and pushed the body off of Tsunade and helped her up. Tsunade looked at him, "Naruto did you just… Flash?"

"Uh, yeah Kyuubi taught it to me." Naruto said and turned around to look at the fallen man again to discover he was gone. "He's gone!"

"He won't survive long Naruto; that attacks fatal." Tsunade said. "Let's go help the others."


	17. Chapter 17

"Hey, where are we supposed to stay?" Suigetsu yelled pounding on the door.

"Who cares, Suigetsu, go away, we're having a sleep over." Karin said. Standing against the door with Katsuna and Konan.

"Yeah, were just trying on sexy clothes." Katsuna said loudly. The pounding stopped for a second and Katsuna whispered over to Karin, "Did he die?"

"LET ME IN! LET ME IN! LET ME IN!" The pounding increase and Karin shook her head. Konan nudge both of them and pointed to the window on the opposite side of the building. They smiled as Karin opened the window and they escaped leaving Suigetsu to whine.

"Is he always that immature?" Konan asked quickly. Both Karin and Katsuna nodded. "Poor him. Hey, you guys, is there a phone near by? I need to call and talk to Nagito."

"Yeah, hey, Ino's probably got one in the flower shop." Karin said stopping in front of it. They walked in together and horded around the counter. "Hey Ino, can she borrow your phone really quick?"

"Ah, sure, come one, it's back here." Ino said leading Konan to the hallway with a pink wall phone. "It breaks in and out sometimes, but it's good for short calls."

"Thank you." Konan said quietly and watched as she walked away. Picking up the phone she began dialing and a few seconds later there was a ringing. 'Go out and pick it up… Go out and pick it up… Go out…'

"He…Hello."

"Nagito, it's me."

"You never showed up for the fight, you could have saved some of my bodies."

"Is that all you care about, those stupid corpses you keep around, they should be buried not reanimated, especially… Listen, I'm in Konoha."

"When are you coming back, I need help getting more bodies."

"Forget your stupid bodies! Listen, I'm tired of hanging around dead things all the time, you want my help you get your ass down here and come and get me. And no, not a body, you Nagito. A while ago, you said you loved me…" She said quietly and then roared, "Now prove it! I'll be waiting, and if your not here in a week don't bother coming."

"Konan, I…"

"Goodbye, Nagito." Konan hung up the phone. Walking back Ino and Karin were staring at her. Katsuna looked at her and began clapping. "That was a great ultimatum! Way to take charge of your life Konan!"

* * *

"Madara's still alive, I can feel it." Sasuke muttered to Itachi, Naruto and Kisame. "I've decided to go and track his whereabouts. I figure if I look in the right places, I can find him and finish him off."

"What about the village?" Itachi asked quickly.

"I doubt they want me to stay."

"Don't be an idiot; of course we want you to stay!" Naruto yelled. "We need more powerful shinobi, otherwise the village may fall under attack again!"

"Naruto, that's what they have you for." Sasuke said quickly. "Anyway, it's not like I'm going to be gone forever."

"Little Sasuke, it's time we get going." Kaiyomi said walking out with Ruki on her shoulders. Sasuke stood up and looked to Itachi who stood up too.

"Sasuke."

"Itachi. Goodbye big brother."

"Goodbye little brother." Sasuke stepped over and hugged Itachi, "don't get yourself killed."

"I'll try not to." Sasuke let go and turned to Kaiyomi, "let's get you to your lab quickly."

"Thanks for escorting me by the way, now that Katsuna's decided to stay here, I won't have anyone to protect us when we travel." Kaiyomi said as they began to walk away. The three watched them and then they heard the door shut.

Itachi through himself back down on the chair and looked over to Kisame, "So what are you doing?"

"I thought I might hang out for a couple of days and then see if I can't find decent work as a mercenary." Kisame said.

"You could get a job on training people how to mutilate others."

"But eventually, I'd end up repeating myself, and where's the fun in that." Kisame said. "Well, I'm going to go find some food, I'll see you guys later."

"Bye Kisame." Itachi said and turned to Naruto, "and what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go buy flowers and visit Kakashi." Naruto said standing and stretching.

"Mind if I tag along?" Itachi asked, Naruto shook his head gently.

* * *

"Just a second, I'll be right back." Sasuke said and left Kaiyomi and Ruki and headed a little ways ahead to a familiar park bench. Sakura leapt down from the trees and slowly walked over. "It figures you be here."

"Tsunade says things repeat themselves until it's like beating a dead horse, but I'm not here to beg you to stay. I have a gift from Tsunade." Saukra held out a small green box and gave it to Sasuke. "Go ahead open it."

Sasuke pulled off the lid and looked down at the shimmering metal and smiled. "You buffed the scratch out?"

"No, Naruto has your old head band, that's your new one. You now work for Konoha, except are more of free lance ninja." She smiled and picked it out of the box and tide it around his head. Pulling out the bangs she stepped back. "it suits you."

"Thanks Sakura, although I'm not sure why the Hokage's doing it."

"She is… but more then that, Naruto ordered her to on the threat that he'd go too. He said you were one of us until you die." Sakura began to walk away. "Don't be such a stranger alright, and don't forget Naruto's birthday, its coming up soon. Later." She jumped away and Sasuke touched the cool metal and smiled.

* * *

"Come on, blue is defiantly your color!" Ino yelled pulling out a nail polish and tossing it at Konan. "No more dark colors for you, they make people seem all boyish."

"She has a point, look at all the ANBU women; you don't see any of them on dates." Tenten said cheerily.

Hinata laughed at her and everyone turned to look at her. She stopped and got embarrassed, "I though it was funny because ANBU aren't supposed to be seen." She said mashing her fingers together.

"It's okay Hinata, if we were quicker on the uptake we would have got it." Sakura said comforting. She turned around and everyone looked at Katsuna. "Hey are you alright?"

"She's been bummed out since this afternoon." Karin said quietly.

"I wonder what Sasuke told her?"

"Give me a minute." Katsuna said and stepped outside and jumped up on the ceiling and sat down. 'Why can't you stay, who's going to protect me from the dark?' 'You have a horrible way of putting that you know.' 'I know, so?' 'Here, take my sword, it never helped me out any.' 'What if I stab myself?' 'Katsuna, I'll be back in a couple of weeks, just keep it in the scabbard.' 'Can I come with you, I'll get board here.' 'I want to fight my fights alone, after all, I'm the one who volunteered to track him down.' 'Here, take this, it's a bag full of cookies.' 'If I keep eating your cooking I'll get fat.' 'I know, that's the plan, then you can't go anywhere.'

Katsuna reach behind her and felt the sword handle. It was still warm. Suddenly her eyes shot up to the sky where she saw something strange for the area. She ran down the wall and opened the window. "Guys come on, there's a helicopter landing at the Hokage's building!"

"Where girls!" Ino yelled as they filed out onto the roof and looked at the machine.

"Let's go check it out!" Tenten said and began racing towards the building, everyone right on the tips of her heels.

"I take it you guys don't see helicopters often." Konan said over to Hinata who shook her head. "Have you guys ever seen a train?"

"I have, but up in Snow country." Sasuke said.

"I blew one up once." Katsuna said and everybody stared at her. "It was loaded with dynamite and I was practicing fire Jutsus near by… Doesn't matter, does it?"

"Nope, not really." Ino said as they jumped onto the wall and raced up to the top where the helicopter was. When they reached the top the helicopter landed and Shizune held them back as Tsunade stood closer waiting for the blades to stop.

As soon as they did Tsunade began walking towards the copter. After a few seconds a thinly man fell out onto the roof top. He pushed himself up off the ground and looked at Tsunade and held out a hand. Tsunade squinted her eyes. "You…"

"Hello Tsunade. I need to find… Konan." He said turning to behind her. He began walking past her with his hands shove half way in his pockets looking pathetic and ragged. He walked straight up to Konan and looked up at her, "I blew up my microwave this morning… by accident. Apartment caught on fire… somewhat. I managed to put it out but my safety rooms wreaked."

"Than you'll have to sleep on the couch." She said weakly. "Or did it get burned?"

"It's ash now. I have some people rebuilding." He turned his head down and looked away to his foot that he began moving. "Listen, I didn't know if you meant by the end of this week which was at midnight, or a week from the call so I chose the closest one and I borrowed a helicopter from this our arsenal and… I'm sorry."

"Nagito." Konan said as she wrapped her arms around him. "You sound like such a wimp right now."

Naigto pull her shoulder back and kissed her forehead, "I want to go home."

"I'm in a sleep over. I have an idea!" Konan said happily.

* * *

"This is awkward." Itachi grumbled.

"More like weird." Naruto pulled off a can of soda and tossed it to Kisame.

"I don't mind, you guys feed me." Kisame said biting into the can.

"How do you open this thing?" Nagito asked holding the up to Itachi.

"Why did I get dragged into this?" Shikamaru asked, "I was minding my own business."

"Think you have it bad I was already in bed." Neji rubbed his eyes and fell over on the floor. "I'm going back to sleep."

"You have to get some control over your girlfriend, Nagito." Naruto groaned.

* * *

**End of Part 1**

**Part 2 will be added on to this to save hassel!  
**


	18. Chapter 18

**Part Two: Adulthood

* * *

**

"Hello," he said gruffly into his cell phone. He waited a minute and heard the message. "I'm there now. No sign of him. He never should have survived all these years… I understand… Really now, that's interesting… You're kidding. Well congratulations then, call me later when you figure more of it out. Bye Nagito." He flipped the cell phone shut and shoved it in the back pocket of his pants.

"There still is now sign of him with in city limits." Gaara said walking up behind him as they stood on the top of the Kazekage's complex looking over the city, "but if his information says he is then we'll keep looking for him, Sasuke."

"Well then, it's about time I'll be taking off. I have to go give my report in Konoha. Make sure you call me first before alerting anyone else if you find someone with Sharingan, Itachi's found some old records of Uchiha women marrying out years ago, were not sure if the blood would be strong enough anymore to produce it, but better safe then sorry." Sasuke said and shook Gaara's hand. "Say hi to the wife and kids for me."

"Can do, oh, by the way, has any new news come about Tsunade's condition?"

"Yeah, I got a call from Sakura earlier today. She's been diagnosed with brain cancer; they've been pressing her to name a new Hokage. She doesn't have long to go, I guess." Sasuke said scratching his head carefully. "Do you want me to take her your regards?"

"Please, I'll see you later Sasuke." Gaara said. Sasuke nodded and vanished in a poof of smoke.

* * *

Itachi hung up his home phone and walked down the hall wearily. "It's too early, I'm getting old." He stopped and knocked at a door down the hall. "Mokuza, are you up?" He opened the door to find the little boy sleeping on the floor in a pile of blankets and with a little drool coming out of his mouth. Itachi knelt down and patted the boy's messy black hair and smiled. "Mokuza, wake up hunny."

The little boy looked up and stuck his tongue out. "It's too early daddy. Five more minutes."

"I got a call from Uncle Sasuke; he'll be back later tonight."

"Wake up tonight then." The little boy said turning over.

"Fine, I guess you won't get any breakfast." Itachi said walking down the hall, he waited a second and heard feet running after him. The little boy stopped and looked up giggling. "Daddy I want eggs."

"I guessed so. Come on." Itachi bent over and picked him up. "Then after this, we'll go visit mommy."

"Why does mommy always look like a rock?" Mokuza asked. "In that picture you have mommy looks like a girl."

"Don't ask questions you already now the answers to Mokuza. You know mommy past away." Suddenly the phone rang. Itachi handed the bowl and eggs to Mokuza and picked up the phone. "Yeah, hey Kaiyomi. No, I just woke up… Completely?... Yeah, I'll tell Naruto when he gets back. Yeah, bye."

"Daddy… I think I messed up." Itachi turned around to see the egg shells all over the floor and yolks scattered everywhere including on Mokuza's head. "We need more eggs."

"You're lucky I by two cartons at a time, Mokuza." Itachi laughed cleaning up the mess.

* * *

"Hey, you can't drive a motorcycle into Konoha at night! It's dangerous!" Yelled a guard as Sasuke skidded to a halt before the main street. Sasuke put the kick stand down and took off his helmet. The two guards stopped and looked at him, "oh, it's you. Got rid of the sports car?"

"Still have the sports car, it's just I don't take it to Suna, don't want to get sand in the interior. Hey's Naruto back yet?" Sasuke asked, "I got a letter from Suna for him."

"No, he's still in Iwa. Can I ride that thing later?"

"No." Sasuke said loudly and pulled the kick stand back up. He took off down the street and left the guards bickering to themselves. He slowed down at a street crossing and looked down one street and the other. "I can go home tomorrow…"

Sasuke carefully turned down the first street and stopped in front of his old apartment complex. He turned off the bike and put the stand down. He grabbed his helmet and his bag and jumped to the second story and knocked on the door. He looked at the bottom of the door and saw a dim light coming from beneath.

The door opened and Sasuke looked up and smiled. "Hey Katsuna."

"Sasuke, you're back already. Still no Madara I take it?" She said stepping back and waving him in. She closed the door as he set his bag and helmet down. "I thought he would be dead by now."

"So did everyone else." Sasuke sat down and began shuffling through his bag. He pulled out a small scroll. "Kaiyomi's latest research on your chakra cloaking, she thinks you might be able to use it as a weapon."

"Thank you." Katsuna said sitting down next to him and taking the scroll. "Do you like my new nightlight?"

"A snowman? For the holidays I take it?" Sasuke pulled it out of the wall and the room went dark. He felt clamping on his arm and put it back in. "Seriously, there's nothing in the dark you have to fear, Katsuna."

"I know, but after fearing it for so long… It's kind of like…" She said quietly. She moved over and laid her head on his shoulder, "you're going to stay right?"

"That's why I brought my bag in." Sasuke said standing and dragging her up with him. He walked her over to the bed and sat her down. "I'm going to take a shower. Don't fall asleep with out me."

"I never do." She said as she watched him disappear into the bathroom.

* * *

"Tsunade, you really need to go home." Sakura said quietly looking in on her decaying teacher. "There's nothing more you can do."

"I realize that, but I have fine details I can do." Tsunade said weakly pushing her grey locks back out of her face. "I'm dying not stupid; I can still do my job until it's time."

"It's just…" Sakura broke down crying on the floor of her office. Tsunade stopped and looked up at her. "I just can't imagine…"

"Sakura, I'm old, you realized that a long time ago. Go home and get some rest, we have to plan the funeral tomorrow." Tsunade said getting up and helping her off her feet. Tsunade walked her to the door and opened it up. "I'll see you later, alright."

Sakura looked up and nodded quickly that clung on to the Hokage. "Just don't die on me yet, alright?"

"Alright, I promise." She said and Sakura left quietly sniffling. Tsunade shut the door and leaned back on it. "Naruto, you better hurry back; I can't hold on much longer."


	19. Chapter 19

Sasuke heard the phone ringing and his eyes opened to Katsuna's hair. Pulling back he lifted his hand off her and felt around for his phone. Catching it he opened it quickly. "It's three AM… What? Then start alerting the other countries, but wait until sun up, it'll take at least two days for them to reach any goodly sized place to do some damage… Yeah, Bye Nagito."

"Who's calling at three in the morning, that's ridiculous." Katsuna said as Sasuke stood up and got out of bed. "Hey where are you going?"

"Front gate, I'm having the guards alert all the outpost, the Akatsuki statue crumbled, all the tailed beast have been let loose. Nagito says they're pissed as Hell." Sasuke grabbed his pants and began putting them on. "I'll be back as soon as I'm done telling everybody."

"Oh, your side of the bed's warm. Be back quickly, okay?" Katsuna said cuddling up to her pillow. Sasuke kissed her quickly and shoved his phone in his back pocket and took off into the warm summer morning.

* * *

"You just can't hit on every woman in sight, Konohamaru, A, you look desperate, and B, even if you're now legal your still a kid. You just need to wait for the right girl and the right time." Naruto said as they rushed through the trees.

Sai looked over and smiled, "by definition, it makes you a whore."

"I'm not a whore! It's just I thought… I was being an ass wasn't I?" Konohamaru said quietly.

"Yeah kind of, but don't get bummed over it, it happens to the best of us. But you should defiantly think of losing the 'I can do anything' attitude with women." Naruto said quickly and looked ahead seeing the gate to Konoha. "We're home!"

"Finally, I was getting tired of eating all that jerky." Konohamaru said, "You guy should have told me we don't stop at any restaurants on missions."

"Stopping during a mission is against regulations unless a team member is injured or there is a need to wait." Sai said quickly. "Didn't you read the manual?"

"We have a manual?" Naruto asked as they stopped at the gate offices. "Hey guys, what's new?"

"Not much, Naruto. Sasuke's back from Sunagakure, Tsunade's… dying." The guard said quietly. "I figured I should put the good news first."

"It would figure Granny would eventually find a way out of being Hokage… Just didn't think it would be this quick." Naruto said and slightly hit his hand on the counter. Suddenly they were shove aside by Sasuke, "get word out to all the towers, be on the look out for the tailed beasts. Tomorrow make sure all the alarms are working, they may decided to attack in a group of two or more and we'll need extra early warning."

"Only the Hokage can give an ord…. I'll get on it." The guard said and picked up the phone and began calling out to the posts.

"Sasuke," Naruto said cheerfully and held out a hand. Sasuke shook it and they looked at each other. "How was Suna?"

"Hot, sandy… hot." Sasuke said quickly. "Hey, are you guys going to see Tsunade?"

"Yeah, we have to report in about Iwa immediately."

"I'm tagging along, I have to tell her about he tailed beasts." He said but Naruto shook his head.

"I'll tell her, why don't you go back to Katsuna's. You have lipstick smeared… on your neck." Sasuke put a hand there and smeared it a little bit more, "and next time at least get a shirt on, stop showing all us lean guys up."

"Later Naruto, Sai, Konohamaru." Sasuke disappeared and Naruto and his team began on their way to the Hokage building. Upon entering they saw Shizune walking down the hall carrying her new piglet, Kiki. She looked up at them and tried to smile. "You're lucky, Tsunade's up harassing everyone. I suppose you already heard."

"Yeah, she shouldn't be up in the middle of the night though." Naruto said.

"Tsunade just got up twenty minutes ago and called Sakura over, I don't know what she wanted but they're in her office now." Shizune said. "Well, we're back to bed, say good night Kiki." The pig squealed and stuck its tongue out licking the air. "Pigs don't lick people, Kiki." Shizune said turning to leave for her room.

Naruto knocked on the door, there was no response for a couple of seconds until Sakura opened the door. She saw them and pulled the door open and walked back to her seat by Tsunade. "They're already here."

"Good." Tsunade said reading through the scrolls in her dimly lit office. "You three, come in and report quickly."

"Iwa has made a peace agreement with Waterfall and has moved all ninja posts out of their country. That's it basically for the report. Sasuke set all posts on alert," Naruto said quickly and Tsunade looked up. "The tailed beasts were released from the statue Akatsuki had them trapped in."

"That boy needs to learn the Hokage makes decisions and orders." Tsunade laughed gently. "Sai, you're dismissed."

"Good night, Hokage." Sai said walking out and shutting the door behind him.

Tsunade with one fell swoop cleared her desk off. She set down a scroll with several names on it and pointed out the last one, "Konohamaru, it's your right to sign this one. It'll give you the ability to summon help from the monkeys, just like your grandfather could."

"But, why me?" Konohamaru asked.

"Summoning things is a generational thing." Tsunade said. "Naruto, the scroll to summon the Death God, used by the fourth Hokage to give you Kyuubi. And Sakura, the scroll for the slugs. My gift to you three."

Naruto reached down and picked up the thin scroll. He opened it and began reading the names. "Granny, all the Hokage's are on here, this is cool… in a grim way."

"Only the Third and the Fourth used it seeing as it's suicide, but if you absolutely need to win…" Tsunade said and began hacking, Saukra stood up and helped her stand. She stopped and began breathing heavily. "Calm down Sakura, it doesn't hurt that bad. You three, have fun using the summons, except you Naruto. Oh, one more thing." Tsunade tossed a scroll at Naruto, "Kakashi left it here when he first started training you, it's for Sasuke."

"Alright, take care Granny, I'll come visit tomorrow." Naruto said as they left. Sakura closed the door behind them and walked up next to them. "How's she taking it?"

"She's completely fine with dying, I think it's because Jiraya's already gone…" Sakura said darkly and then began laughing. "And to think, she said she'd out live us all."

Naruto stopped and held Sakura back and let Konohamaru leave. "Sakura, you're not alright are you?"

"No, I'm really going to miss her." Sakura said and Naruto pulled her in and held her. "I don't know what I'll do with out her."

"You'll going on living."


	20. Chapter 20

"Five of them… No, Seven." Nagito said sitting on the floor watching his bodies work out in the city. "They all have grass emblems tattooed on their left shoulder."

"Grass doesn't have a village so it hires other villages, this is someone else's doing, Nagito." Konan said quietly. "Did you see any techniques used?"

"No, just taijutsus, they must know Ninjutsus are traceable. I'm going to bring back the corpses for analysis. They seem like amateurs so they may not know about cleansing the blood."

"Why would some one start a war with us, they know Rain's getting powerful especially with our alliances. This couldn't have something to do with the tailed beast could it?" Konan asked quickly. "I mean, them escaping means new chances for Jinchuriki being made. And… my train of thought crashed."

"It's okay, what you said is a logical pattern, but we should wait to make sure. I'll send a squad out to Grass to speak with their leader." Konan clutched her stomach, "are you alright?"

"I just got really hungry for something meaty…" She said. "I have a feeling I'm going to get horribly fat during this pregnancy. I won't look good fat. I'll be all poofy and have rolls."

"You're going to get big from the baby growing anyway, why complain about it? Anyway, you can just hide out in the house." Nagito said and was slapped upside the head quickly. "I said something stupid again, didn't I?" Konan smiled and nodded.

* * *

"I have a helicopter on each east and where they're heading. Right now, they're fighting with each other destroying the land around the area, but as soon as they leave we'll know." Sasuke said pointing out on a map the location of the beasts, "the large cities in immediate danger are Konoha and Suna.

"Naruto and I have both been in contact with Gaara this morning and have set up an immediate response. As soon as the demons begin to cross the border of one country, the country of Rain will aid and hopefully well be able to fend them off for a while. Right now Suna's archivists are finding the notes of the shinobi who put the 1 tails in a tea kettle, hopefully we'll be able to seal them away and toss them into the deepest parts of the ocean."

"What if two beast cross both borders? It'll take a couple of hours to trigger a response and if in that time another crosses then one country will be left to fend for themselves." Sakura said quietly.

"Both countries have done it before," Naruto said. "But we now have a little extra power on our side if we get Rain. But we're really hoping they find the notes quickly."

"Gaara said as soon as they were found they'd be emailed to our translation specialists seeing as they'd be in Sand Script." Sasuke turned around to look at Tsunade, "for the time being and such a dangerous occurrence that we may be attack by more then one beasts, Naruto and I have a request." Sasuke said quickly.

"Stop all missions to other countries and station five squadrons along the border. They'll be informed quickly and can come together at one point easily so they can hold it back some while we send reinforcements." Naruto said quickly.

"The plan seems pretty good, and it looks like a best course of action." Tsunade said and flipped through a page and pulled out two files. "While one of you two came up with this?"

"We both did, Granny." Naruto said wondering what was going through her mind.

"Which one of you came up with most of it?"

"Naruto did, Lady Hokage." Sasuke said quickly. She quickly moved one file away.

"Naruto, go call back all the teams in different countries, then go through the job files and decline the foreign country ones and any that you think are frivolous." Tsunade said quickly. "You both are dismissed."

Sasuke walked out first and held the door open for Naruto and closed it behind him. "Hey Sasuke, something important just happen and nothing connected in my brain." Naruto said shoving his hands in his pockets and turning to see Sasuke snicker.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done that then, you're going to have to make good decisions on your own now." He teased. "Poor little Naruto doesn't realize what I just did for him."

"Gave me a workload. Do you know how many job files we get a day?"

"No, but you should which is good for what I just did for you."

"It was almost all your work Sasuke," Naruto said stopping. "And I'll go back and tell her if you don't tell me what just happened."

"Wait… you seriously have no clue do you?" Sasuke said becoming serious. "She had our files out from when we started academy on up." Naruto shrugged. "Tsunade's dying… Seriously Naruto, think harder."

"My brain's fried, I spent the last week making two countries have peace, just tell me."

"She was picking Hokage, Naruto, and I just gave you the job of Sixth Hokage, that's why she sent you to do some of the Hokage's work." Sasuke said grabbing him by the shoulders. "Do you get it now?"

"You mean, I just became the next Hokage?" Naruto said pointing at himself.

"When you get appointed send me a fruit basket, with out grapes, as a thank you." Sasuke said walking away laughing. "See you later, Naruto."

* * *

"Yeah, thanks." Sasuke flipped his phone shut and opened the front door to Itachi's house and walked in and sat down on the couch and turned the TV on. Itachi popped his head in from the other room and smirked. "Hey big brother."

"Hey little brother. Where have you been?" Itachi asked as Mokuza ran past him and climbed up on Sasuke.

"Hey kiddo. Why don't you go get the planes I gave you for your birthday and we'll go fly them outside."

"Sweet!" Mokuza yelled and ran out of the room. Sasuke turned to Itachi, "the first seven tailed beasts have broken the statue, they're out and wandering around. When I tell you to, I want you to leave Konoha with Mokuza and head towards the south until I make sure it's safe enough."

"Sasuke, I can and will protect my son, you don't need to do it for me. Besides, you and I are assets. We have Ameratsu, two on one beast and that's a win." Itachi said and Sasuke nodded. "What else?"

"This morning a body was discovered in Suna's poorer district, male, black hair, old, Sharingan with a sphere like scar pattern on his back." Sasuke smiled up. "I didn't kill him, but he's dead."

"Good, the worlds better for it." Itachi said as he was nearly tripped by Mokuza carrying two remote control planes. Mokuza looked up quietly, "Uncle Sasuke, I lost the remotes."


	21. Chapter 21

"Where do you have to go Sasuke?" Itachi asked as he leaned on the door frame watching his little brother. "Konoha's your only real home, why can't you stay here?"

"It's none of your concern, Itachi. I'm grown; I can take care of myself. Anyway, I'll be back as always." Sasuke said. He picked up his helmet from the table and looked over at him. "I'm just going to check on the outer reaches of the country and secure some things that may be shaky. Tell Mokuza I'll see him in a few days."

"Why don't you go wake him up and tell him, tell him that you're leaving again because something about being home and having a family bothers you." Itachi said quickly. Sasuke stopped, "you're easier to read then you think. Doesn't it matter to you that you have no stability in you're life?"

"No," Sasuke said beginning to walk out but that stopped. "I'm surprised you started a family, considering you killed your last one." Sasuke jabbed quickly and slammed the door behind himself. He looked over at his motor cycle to see Suigetsu kicking it. "What are you doing…?"

"Checking tire pressure, I've decided to take you up on your offer to come with you, haven't had a good battle in a while, plus look, now I've got four of the seven swords, and I have to check them out in combat." He said quickly. "One question, this bikes not big enough for both of us is it?"

"We're going on foot after I put my toys away. We got an early report from Nagito; two of the tailed beasts have started in this direction." Sasuke said moving the bike into the alley and into the shed behind Itachi's house. "It seems the two tails and the three tails are coming. Neither are really that destructive on their own, but together, they may do a bit of damage."

"Oh, fun." Suigetsu said and they began out of the newly redone Uchiha district and out to the front gate. "So, who knows were going?"

"No one, it'll be too much for anyone here to handle right now." Sasuke said and they rushed out and leapt into the trees.

* * *

"Can't we just plan it later, Tsunade? This isn't really what I want to be doing." Sakura said quietly as she, Shizune and Kiki sat around Tsunade in her office. "Shouldn't we got out and be making memories?"

"I won't have anything to remember soon enough, anyway, it'll be best to get it out of the way. Shizune, you've gotten a hold of Ino's flower shop about the arrangements?" Tsunade asked commandingly.

"Yes, she'll be able to do them the morning of, she's stop the selling of white roses so she can make them on a minute's notice. She did want to know if you wanted any color put in anywhere, she said she always thinks of a soft pink for you."

"That'd be nice. Tell her to be as creative as she wants." Tsunade turned her head to Sakura, "what else do we have?"

"Arrangements for the standing, who's going to be in the front row?" Meekly she looked up, "although I really don't need to ask, do I?"

"You, Naruto and Shizune, small front row, but that's all I would really want there. Oh, and I'd like to be cremated."

"I'll call and tell the funeral home, later." Shizune said making a note.

"Who's going to speak?" Tsunade looked right back at her and smiled. "Alright, and who's going to put the Urn in the Hokage's tomb since you still haven't chosen your replacement?"

"Naruto will." Tsunade said and then looked over at Shizune. "Shizune… I think…" Tsunade said collapsing. Shizune and Sakura got up.

Shizune sighed, "Still alive, we need to get her to the hospital."

"I got her." Sakura said quickly and picked her up to jump out the window. She vaulted across buildings and landed at the emergency room and broke one of the doors. Bringing her inside Sakura laid her down on a gurney and called over a doctor and nurse. "She passed out. We need to get her in bed quickly."

"This way, we set one aside for her." The doctor said and led her down the hall. Sakura pushed Tsunade in the room and moved her over to the bed and removed her jacket. "Usually we'd ask you to leave but I don't think contamination really matters now."

"No, it'd probably take her slower… Tsunade." Sakura said as she saw the eyes open.

"I'm not dead yet… Stop looking so pathetic. Sakura," Tsunade said and pointed to her jacket. "The jacket's yours because I know you're as just as bad of a gambler as I am. But in the front right pocket, there a key to the left top draw of the Hokage's desk, go and bring me the scroll inside of it, and don't look at it."

"Yes mam." Sakura said running out of the room and back out of the broken door.


	22. Chapter 22

"They're defiantly coming this way. Two hours before they get here, then about four hours till they could possibly get to Konoha. You, sound the sirens and get the five teams ready for intercept." Sasuke said and pulled out his cell phone. "Suigetsu, you're in charge of the teams."

"Thanks for giving me the fun job, Sasuke." Suigetsu said running after the team.

Sasuke flipped it open and dialed the number and let the phone ring. Picking up he heard an unexpected voice. "Sakura where's the Hokage?... Listen, I need you to get the village on stand by, there are two tailed beast coming, they'll be at the border in two hours… Two, tell Tsunade quickly and if she doesn't get back to me I'll handle it by myself." Sasuke hung up and pressed five and talk and the phone began ringing. "Hey big brother, how fast can you get to border post three?"

* * *

"Tsunade!" Sakura said running into the room quickly. "There are two tailed beasts coming, expect to be at the border in two hours."

"Go get Naruto." Tsunade said quietly.

"What? We have…"

Tsunade sat up and looked at her, "go get Naruto, or I'll get him myself. The scroll, Sakura." Tsunade said holding a hand out. Sakura gave it to her and stared. "You have three minutes to get him here, GO!"

Sakura flew out of the room and out onto the street and up onto the wall of a building straight across town and landed on the side of Naruto's apartment building causing a crater where she landed. She reached over and opened the window to see Naruto sleeping. She shook him violently. "Naruto, up now!"

"Huh, Sakura, what's happening?"

"Get up and get your pants on or I'm dragging you in your boxers." She said through a growl.

"What's happening, is there…"

"Too late!" Sakura said as she grabbed his upper arm and tore him from his bed and began running back across town. "Tsunade only gave me three minutes to get you, and I only have a minute left."

"What's she going to do? Scold you? Can you let go yet? I've lost all feeling in my arm."

"Get over it." Sakura said jumping down and creating another large hole at the bottom of the exit. She ran through the door she broke earlier and went in towards the room and threw Naruto inside and stepped in herself half way out of breath. "I brought him Tsunade."

Naruto got to his feet and looked around and decided to give up the idea of covering up. "What is it granny?"

"Sakura, go to the storage room and get a box with the initials M K on it and bring it here fast." Sakura nodded and took off again. "If she keeps going like that, she'll be a bitter old woman just like me. I'm having a doctor coming in about twenty minutes, he's going to give me a estimated date of death, though I don't need a doctor to tell me that I don't have long. Here, take this and read it out loud." Tsunade tossed the scroll over to Naruto and waited.

Catching it Naruto opened it and began to read. "I, Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure do hereby name my successor, the Sixth Hokage, as Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure. Signed the Fifth Hokage… Seriously?"

"Congratulations, Hokage… thought your lucky I sent for clothes, you can't take over in boxers." Tsunade laughed. Sakura burst into the room and looked around. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing," Tsunade said, "the Hokages were just having a conversation."

Sakura thought and jumped over and hugged Naruto. "Congratulations, Naruto!"

"Naruto, the Hokage needs an assistant…" Tsunade said nudging her head over. Naruto nodded but did nothing. "Fine, Sakura, you're Naruto's assistant."

"Oh, you meant get one now." Naruto said.

"Sakura, give him the trunk and leave the room for a minute." Sakura nodded and handed over the trunk and stepped out of the room closing the door. "Open it up, there's clothes in there."

Naruto pulled out a green ninja vest and set that down on Tsunade's bed and pulled out a pair of pants. "Thank god, I was worried I'd have to go around all day in my boxers." Naruto put those on then grabbed the dark blue matching shirt and put on the green vest. "You know I've never actually been in one of these before, it's kind of comfortable."

"It's because your father broke it in." Naruto froze. "We've hidden their identities from you long enough; look inside there, there's a family picture somewhere."

Naruto hit something hard and pulled it out and looked at it for a second and held it up. "My mom was photographed with the Fourth Hokage… wait, you said this was a family… I should have guessed that a long time ago. What's my mother's name?"

"Kushina, she was a Whirlpool ninja, tomboyish and abrupt when she was younger, then your father got a hold of her and she straightened out. She was horribly powerful. I can't remember that much about her…" Tsunade sat foreword and fished through the box and pulled out the long white coat with fire at the end. "Put this on, and go to the borders with Sakura, the tailed beasts are coming, you don't have much time."

"You're leaving this up to me?" Naruto said quietly.

"You are the Hokage."

* * *

"So she still hasn't contacted yet?" Sasuke asked looking around for a sign of some sort of information.

"She was admitted to the hospital, she's doing fine for now." Sakura said walking in putting her gloves on. She pushed in between Itachi and Sasuke and looked out as you could see the tails coming. "Let's hope he can handle this."

"I told you, this is a piece of cake, we go in, kick their butts, and they go flying." Naruto said walking in. He pushed Sakura's head down and looked above her, "Why are there nine tails out there?"

"What?" Sasuke said looking out and he saw what Naruto was talking about. "The two, three and four tails?"

"Sasuke, summon Manda and tell him well give him a good sacrifice if he fights hard. Sakura summon Katsuyu. One summon per tailed beast. Itachi, you're in charge of ground control, that's all five teams we have out here. Also, both you two try controlling them with Sharingan. Sakura, contact the village and tell them to send out any Jounin and three-quarters of the ANBU."

"Alright." Sakura said and pulled out her small pink cell phone and began dialing.

"Sasuke," Naruto said quickly, Sasuke turned and looked at him. "Was that with out with grapes again?" Sasuke laughed as he jumped from the tower and bit his thumb and landed on the ground suddenly rising on a giant purple snake. "Manda, I'll give you a good sacrifice later, alright."

"You better boy or you will be my sacrifice." Manda hissed loudly. Naruto jumped down next to him and called Gamabunta. "Oh great, I have to work with that bag of toad oil."

"You know, I actually have the pattern for that wallet I was going to turn you into Manda." Gamabunta croaked back at him.

Sakura jumped down as Katsuyu was summoned. "Itachi's gone and instructed the ground teams on strategies." Sakura said quickly. "Reinforcements will take an hour."

"You three… you have to work together to fight against the tailed beasts." Naruto said loudly, "got it?"

"Manda, that includes you." Sasuke said stomping his foot as hard as he could on the beasts head.


	23. Chapter 23

"The three tails was driven into the sea, it seems to be staying there. The four tails ran a few minutes ago." Shikamaru said quietly as they stood on top of the rock face bearing the Hokages images. "Do you want me to call the teams back, Naruto? We have a direct line with them."

"Tell them to go as fast as they can. What the status of civilians?" Naruto said quickly, Shizune began flipping through her note. "You can just tell me."

"Right, we have them all evacuated to several different places, all underground and severely safe." Shizune said. "Naruto, can I go be with Tsunade?"

"Of course," Naruto said calmly. He looked up and saw the two tails barely 100 meters away from him at the gates. Then he saw Gamabunta stab the cat demon in the back and get smacked away. "I'm going to fight with Gamabunta. Tell the teams to hurry." Naruto said flashing to the other side of the village on top of the toad boss. "Hey boss, transformation."

"Got it Naruto!" Naruto quickly made the hand signs and they transformed into the demon fox. The paw slashed at the beast, the two tails turned around and started attacking back. 'Naruto, we have to get it off.' 'I know.' Suddenly the cat struck hard as it roared at them, sending the Kyuubi flying and dismissing the transformation.

"Itachi, cover left." Sasuke said as they split going around either side. Itachi nodded and they took to opposite sides and waited until the beast held the head still. "Ameratsu now!"

Both men's Sharigans excelled and the black flames appeared on the eyes of the cat. The beast struggled in its burning blindness and tipped over onto the gate destroying it and the guards station. The two tails got to its feet and began running wildly through the village.

"Well that back fired." Itachi said quietly. "Sasuke, dismiss them quickly." Sasuke focused for a second and the cat stopped to rub its eyes, blinded temporarily. "We can chase it off with heat!" Itachi said quickly and rushed up through the wreckage the cat left behind and jumped on a tall beam by the demon's face and cast Katon near it. Quickly the cat ran away from it and kept going until it hit the edge of Konoha.

Itachi turned to Sasuke who was paralyzed and kept moving and threw Katon on the two tails' hind legs sending it running from the village. Itachi rushed back over to Sasuke and shook him. "Sasuke, what's wrong?"

From Sasuke's eyes started running thick streams of blood as he collapsed onto his brother. Itachi grabbed on to him and began towards the hospital.

Gamabunta felt he was being lifted and saw Naruto pushing the toad up and off of him. "You're a little heavy, you need to diet, boss."

"I'm a giant toad, Naruto. Well, seeing as the fur bag's gone for now, I'll be seeing you. Congratulations on your appointment." He said disappearing. Naruto began rubbing his shoulder and flashed over to the top of the mountain. Shikamaru looked at him then pointed out over the city. "Konoha's nearly completely destroyed."

"And on my first day…" Naruto said lightly and laughed. "Don't waste any time, get as many as you can to help start rebuilding. I'm going to tell Tsunade."

"Alright." Shikamaru sighed. He watched Naruto flash away, "why do I always have to do something?"

* * *

Naruto appeared at he entrance to the door to Tsunade's room and heard crying from inside. Suddenly there was screaming and Naruto rushed in to see Sakura on the floor broken while Shizune was silently pulling a white sheet over Tsunade.

Naruto bent down to Sakura to check on her and she looked up quickly and grabbed on to him. "It's not fair Naruto…" She kept bawling and crying until she had exhausted herself and pulled back wiping her eyes. "How do you move from this?"

"Strength, which you've always been good at." He said standing. "It's best if you're not around her right now. Come on, I'll walk you to your house." He said offering his hand out to her. She was helped up and left the room slowly. "Do you want to go home or go to work, it's pretty distracting."

"What filing papers? I guess I'm taking Shizune's job aren't I? What's going to happen to Shizune?" Sakura asked quietly.

"She'll be my assistant as well, she know what my job is better then anyone else. So, home or work?"

"Just take me home, I think I want to sleep." Sakura said meekly.

* * *

"He'll be fine." Katsuna said speaking off of the phone. "Kaiyomi say's it's because the technique to dismiss is so powerful I overwhelms and exhausts the user. She wants to know if you want her to come down here and check him out."

"It'd probably be for the best." Itachi replied looking at his little brother now peacefully sleeping. Mokuza walked in with his planes and held up the remotes. "Look daddy I found my remotes, when's Uncle Sasuke waking up? I want to play with him."

"You have to give him a while, he helped save the village today." There was a knocking, "Come in!"

A few seconds later Shikamaru appeared in the door way with Yui in his arms. She got down and smiled at Mokuza, "Can I play with you?"

"Why don't you two go play outside." Shikamaru said quietly.

"Okay, Dad." Yui said leading Mokuza out into the hallway.

"Yui was lonely seeing as all the other kids are scattered in side villages. Hope you don't mind." Shikamaru said walking a step in. "What's his condition?"

"Unconsious, but fine." Itachi said, "How long is it going to take to rebuild everything?"

"Four to five weeks. Naruto's first order as Hokage was to rebuild. Tsunade passed away about twenty minutes ago."

"So go the last of the Sanin… of course those three…" Itachi said and looked up at Shikamaru, "all three of them were almost clear images of their teachers in battle patterns and how they handled the people around them. How's Kurenai?"

"Besides horribly upset the house is gone, pretty good. That's the main reason why I'm here, Naruto was wondering if we could use some of the empty houses in your district to house the ninja while we rebuild."

"That's perfectly fine, you can go count the rooms in the houses and tell him how many we can fit."

Shikamaru nodded, "thanks Itachi. Oh," Shikamaru said pulling out a scroll. "Naruto forgot to give this to Sasuke, its Kakashi's dog contract. Tsunade wanted him to have it." He said handing it to Katsuna. "See you." He said walking out.

"I'm going to watch the kids, I take it you're not going to leave, even if it gets dark?" Itachi asked.

Katsuna flung her bag over her shoulder and pulled out her small snowman nightlight. "Everything I have fits into a bag so I figured I'd take it all to battle so if I died the apartment wouldn't have to be cleaned out." She watched Itachi walk away and closed the door behind him. Katsuna sat down on the floor next to his bed and plugged the small light into the wall.


	24. Chapter 24

"Are either of you going to come with me?" Naruto asked holding Tsunade's ashes in the vase and her picture as he was standing a couple steps down from Sakura and Shizune about to enter the tomb. "I know only Hokages are supposed to enter here but…"

"It's alright Hokage; we'll be waiting back up here." Shizune said quietly and Kiki started squealing. The little piglet jumped down and started down. "Kiki, you're not supposed to…"

"Don't worry; I'll bring her back up." Naruto said going down the steps. He hit the bottom and started looking around and saw the first four coffins with pictures on top then the third's table with his cremated remains and his picture. Naruto turned across from that and went to the opposite table and set Tsunade down and stood up the picture. "This is good by, Granny. I'll come and visit."

Naruto turned down to the floor and started to look around for Kiki. "Kiki, where'd you go little piggy?" Naruto said getting on his hands and knees checking out the front half of the tomb, "Kiki! Here Kiki! You know Tonton was a lot better behaved then you! Kiki!"

There was a loud squeal from the back of the tomb where there were no lights. Naruto began walking back dropping the Hokage ceremonial hat and pulling a glow stick from his ninja pouch and cracking it. He held it up and walked over looking for the squealing pig and found a small hole in the wall near the bottom of the floor. Naruto tossed the stick and watched it fall out of sight.

"Kiki! Are you alright! Wait… pigs can't talk…" Naruto quickly flashed inside against the wall sitting on his feet and looked down to see the pig scratching her hooves at the wall by the glow stick at the bottom of the room. Naruto bent down carefully and picked her up and checked her over quickly. "Just scared huh, Kiki?"

"Eeeeeeee!" Kiki screamed and licked his face. She started oniking happily and settled down into his arms. He picked up the glow stick in one arm and held it against the wall and looked, there were large shelves with scrolls on them. "Kiki, you know what this is don't you? It's the Hokage's private library! Every forbidden and ancient Jutsus is in here somewhere."

Kiki snorted and started poking Naruto. "Alright, we'll come back and read them later." Naruto carried the pig out and ran to the entrance and handed her back to Shizune. "Hey, where'd Sakura go?"

"She was tired, she went home to rest." Shizune said quietly. Flipping the piglet over and rubbing her belly Shizune smiled. "Who's a silly little Kiki? Hey, Hokage, why are you covered in dust?"

"I found the Hokage's library, wasn't Tsunade looking for it?"

"Yes, I'm surprised… well not really. Tsunade refused to go down there with her grandfather's and great uncle's coffins. Naruto, I have a quick question, you know how Tsunade kept Jiraiya's ashes?" Naruto nodded and Shizune began to lead them away, "what are you going to do with them?"

"Haven't really though about it… I'll probably put him down there with Tsunade. That's alright isn't it?" Naruto looked over asking him. "I'm not exactly sure how the tomb thing works."

"Well… I guess it wouldn't hurt any, but make sure they're well labeled, alright and you need to mark his as a Sanin, not a Hokage." Shizune said. "We have to go clean out her stuff, what did you want to do with all of it? I know Tsunade gave Sakura her gambling jacket which was her prized possession, but she has scrolls and little knick knacks, and huge debts… I don't know how I'm going to pay them off."

"The village will take care of it. As for the knick knacks, they're yours, you are her first pupil. The scrolls should be put to good use whatever they maybe." Naruto said, "why don't you head back, I'm going to go and visit the stone."

"Alright, I'll clean out her liquor cabinet while you're gone." Shizune said jumping in the opposite direction as Naruto.

* * *

"I sensed your chakra over here, I thought I would pop up and see how you were doing… or what, Sakura." Karin said dropping down out of the tree by the bench where Sakura had been left eight years ago. "A little too much right now?"

"Yeah, just a bit. I called Temari, she's going to let me stay over in Suna for a few weeks while I clear my head out." Sakura said quietly.

"That's the chick that Shika gets into shouting matches with, right?" Karin asked and Sakura nodded. "Those people have issues. Anyway, I'm sorry Tsunade died, I know how close you two were. Well, have fun in the desert, it's nice and warm."

"Try going there in the dead of summer. Later Karin." Sakura disappeared. Karin took a deep breath and turned into see Katsuna and Sasuke who had Mokuza on his shoulders. Katsuna ran up, "hey, are you alright, you look pissed off… again."

Karin gritted her teeth, "hi Kat… Are you and Sasuke taking off… again?"

"Naruto asked us to go to the fire temple and get a blessing from the head monk for Tsunade. I decided to take Mokuza with me so he can see it, right kid-o?" Sasuke said looking up at him.

"I'm hungry, uncle Sasuke, do you have any food?" Sasuke shook his head. "Aunt Katsuna, do you have any food?"

"He's calling you aunt?" Karin bellowed and caught her mouth, "I mean how cute."

"Here, I have a giant cookie Mokuza." Katsuna said taking her bag and pulling out a bag. She reached in and handed it to him. "Will that do."

"I'm going to get crumbs in my hair now." Sasuke sighed. "Well we better get going. Say hi to Juugo for me, I heard he's living around the corner from you now."

"He was, he accidentally destroyed the building." Karin said, "bye…" Karin smiled and waved as they jumped up in the trees and made haste to the temple. She dropped her hand and turned around clenching her fists. "Why does that bubble head get my Sasuke…?"


	25. Chapter 25

"By law, Shino and I shouldn't be down here." Neji said as they entered the Hokage's tomb. "Not only could we get in trouble, you could too, Naruto."

"By who? Technically, I'm the only person that can enforce the law right now. Anyway, you guys are the only two people I know that can actually keep quiet, everyone else talks too much." Naruto said and held up the lantern, "plus, I need to see if there's anyway to open this with out breaking the wall down. Shino, could you?"

"I'm on it." Shino's sleeves began to rustle and dozens of small bugs flew over and landed on the wall examining it. "It seems that in the area in the very center of the wall towards the bottom is completely solid while the rest is not. They also sense some chakra…"

"Baykugan!" Neji said activating his bloodline limit and staring up at the door. "There's a door there, a pair of them but they're sealed shut. I've never seen a seal like this before."

"Can you draw it out?" Naruto asked pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil.

"It'll take a couple minutes, it's highly intricate." Neji said taking them and sitting down on the dusty floor. Neji quickly started sketching it out and then held it up to Naruto and Shino.

"That's beyond me." Shino said surprised.

"Hey Kyuubi, come and take a look at this." Naruto said quickly and the small cloud of red chakra filtered out and became a miniature fox and landed by Naruto's feet. "Do you know anything about seals?"

"_**Considered I'm locked away by one…**_" the fox said walking over and looking at the page. "_**Ah… yes… A chakra sacrifice. All you do is give it chakra, but the thing is the amount of chakra**_." The little fox walked over and climbed up the wall what he could and suddenly the door fell in. "_**It requires a lot of chakra**_."

"Thanks Kyuubi." Naruto said. As they walked over the little fox climbed up and jumped up on Naruto's shoulder and the got on his head. "_**Naruto, be careful with some of the scrolls in there.**_"

"Are they dangerous?" Neji asked quickly.

"_**No, it's just Naruto's klutzy and they are very old**_." Kyuubi snapped. "_**Of course some of them are dangerous… but Naruto is also very klutzy**_."

"I'd hit you off my head if I didn't know you'd bite me for it." Naruto said angrily then cooled off. "I want to take a small section and go through it so I'll need you guys to help me carry some back to my office."

"You should have brought Kiba, he could have brought Akahamaru and we could have put saddle bags on him." Shino said taking off his shades. "Did we bring any lights?"

"Yeah." Naruto said pulling out two flares and setting them off. He tossed one to Neji and slid down the door. He began reading the tags on the bottom of the shelves and found a section simply named 'for girls.' He moved his flare over and read 'for boys.' "Do you guys want the girls or boys section?"

"What?" Neji asked following him down and looking at them. "That's an odd way to organize."

"_**Back in the day, some Jutsus were considered by gender. Illusionary Jutsus were considered for girls and children. Fighting Jutsus were considered for men and boys. You'd be surprised how strong a Jutsu a man would pass over just because he thought it womanly.**_" Kyuubi said looking around. "_**Something smells familiar around here…**_" Kyuubi jumped down and walked out of sight and stopped. "_**There's a summoning scroll over here. I fought against the lead many times.**_" The little fox came back with a large scroll dragging from his mouth.

Shino picked it up and opened it. "The Horse Clan? I've never heard of them."

"I have, the Horse Clan was a legendary team of finely breed horses that had amazing chakra capabilities. However, they only agree to work if the person that summoned them thinks that they are truly magnificent." Neji explained slowly. "Also, they eat... a lot. They once ate a village out of all its food when someone summoned all eight of the horses."

"_**It would be effective in protecting the village if you found someone who liked horses.**_"

"So I take it after this we have to go around asking everyone if they like ponies or not." Shino said sarcastically and Naruto nodded and smiled. "Great, sounds like a wonderful assignment." Shino said and they began to take down scrolls.

* * *

"Uncles Sasuke, why were all their heads bald." Mokuza asked quietly as he was nearly asleep in Sasuke's arms. "They all looked kind of funny, like clowns."

"I'm not sure why they shave their heads. It's probably some dress code or something." Sasuke said quickly. "Hey Mokuza, what's that ahead?"

"Huh? Konoha!" The little boy said opening his eyes to look. "Now daddy can put me to sleep."

"Actually, your dad's away on a mission right now. We'll be baby sitting tonight, Mokuza." Katsuna said clinging to the small scroll of parchment the priest had written the prayer on. "Tonight, Uncle Sasuke and I will tuck you in."

"I wanted daddy to tuck me in." Mokuza said sadly as they passed through the gates and continued on through to the Uchiha district. Sasuke and Katsuna stopped at he gates to the district and looked in at all the lit houses. "Uncle Sasuke, why do all the houses have lights on?"

"We're lending the houses out to families who don't have homes right now." Sasuke said entering and seeing two small kids run across the alley. "Haven't seen that in a long time…"

Katsuna walked over to the first house and unlocked the door opening it. She walked in and waited for Sasuke to enter then shut and locked it. Sasuke set Mokuza down on his feet. "Go brush your teeth and change and I'll be in to tuck you in, Mokuza."

Mokuza nodded slowly and took off down the hall to his room. Katsuna glided over and pressed him against the wall. "I'm going to go make us a late dinner." She pressed against him quickly and kissed him. "It'll only be a few minutes; don't tell any really long stories. And no violent one either, remember what your brother said."

"He'll have nightmares, I know." Sasuke said and pushed her back some. "I'll see you in the kitchen in a few minutes." Sasuke swiped her face quickly and smiled as he walked down the hall and walked into the bathroom to see Mokuza finishing brushing. "Come on little guy, it's time for bed."


	26. Chapter 26

Temari caught the bird with one hand and picked the message out of the container. She tossed the bird back into the side and sat down opening the little scroll. Casually she read it. "Hmmm… that's interesting… WHAT!?" She quickly re-read the message and burst out of her little brother's office and down the hall to his chamber. Breaking in the door she rushed over and shook him. "Gaara, get up, Shukaku's coming! He'll be here at daybreak!"

"Shukaku?" He said wearily. Gaara got up and wrapped a robe around himself. "How many hours away is dawn?"

"Five, five and a half. He's coming slowly destroying as much as he can." Temari said quickly handing over the message. Gaara read through it and set it down picking up his cell phone and moved through the names to find the Hokage's office. "Get every available ninja up and prepared in one hour just in case he decided to pick up the pace, I'm going to call Konoha. Also, wake Kankuro up and get him to have the translators working on that sealing technique."

"Alright, Gaara." Temari rushed out of the room and Gaara pressed talk on his phone and yawned. He waited a minute and heard a voice come over.

"What?"

"Naruto, where's Tsunade?"

"Didn't you get the letter? She died three days ago." Naruto said yawning into the phone. "What do you want? It's one AM."

"I know that, I need to speak with the new Hokage."

"Speaking… though not awake."

"Shukaku's coming; I need you to send out a team to help."

"Okay, they'll be there in a couple hours." Naruto hung up the phone and looked up at all the scrolls lying everywhere about the office. "Ah, man, I gotta clean later." He stretched and picked the phone back up.

* * *

Mokuza walked quietly out of his room clutching the teddy bear and walked down the hall passing his father's room and to the door of his uncle's. Slowly he twisted the knob and walked in and saw Sasuke sleeping quietly next to Katsuna. He walked up and poke Sasuke's arm. "Uncle Sasuke… Uncle Sasuke…"

"Hm…?" Sasuke moaned and lifted his head up, "What is it, kid-o?"

"I had a bad dream can I crawl in bed with you and Aunt Katsuna?" Mokuza asked quickly. Sasuke sat up and moved the little boy to the center of the bed in between him and Katsuna and lay back down. "Uncle Sasuke, teddy needs a kiss good night."

Sasuke grabbed the bear, kissed his quickly and handed it back. "Anything else?"

"Can I have a glass of water?"

"Not in bed, come on sport." Sasuke said picking him up. He carried him away into the kitchen and sat him down on the counter. Opening the cupboard he saw all of Mokuza's kid's cups. "Which one do you want?"

"I wan the ducky one." Mokuza said happily and Sasuke pulled it out and walked over to the sink and filled it up. He handed over to Mokuza and leaned against the counter folding his arms. "Thank you Uncle Sasuke."

Katsuna came out of the bedroom slowly and held up Sasuke's phone. "Sweetie, it's Naruto."

Sasuke picked up the phone. "Hey Naruto… Yeah, we'll be there in ten." Sasuke quickly flipped the phone shut and turned to Katsuna and then to Mokuza. "Mokuza, I have to go out on a mission, you'll be staying with Aunt Katsuna."

"What's the mission?" Katsuna asked quickly sliding over to whisper.

"Shukaku's attacking Wind; we're hoping to beat him to Suna. I got to call and wake up my team." Sasuke kissed her quickly then walked away dialing. "Suigetsu, wake up we have a mission… yes now."

Mokuza looked down. "Aunt Katsuna, why does everyone always have to go out and away."

"Because they're strong. They fight to protect you and this city so nothing will happen to you. Plus it pays a lot. Come on, ready for bed?" Katsuna asked holding out a hand. Mokuza nodded and set the cup down next to him and grabbed her hand. Katsuna pulled him into her arms and walked down the hall to Sasuke's room. Sasuke finished pulling his shirt on as they walked in. Katsuna sat down on the bed and laid Mokuza down and kissed him on the forehead. "I'll be right back, sweetie."

Katsuna followed Sasuke out; he quickly turned and faced her. "Take care of him as you always do."

"Don't go injuring yourself to the point Kaiyomi gets frustrated again. Although that was funny. Be safe." Katsuna said and they hugged. "Bring me back something nice from Suna."

"Okay, I'll be back tomorrow hopefully." He said and kissed her and disappeared. Katsuna walked back in the room and move Mokuza over and lay down. "Good night Mokuza."

"Aunt Katsuna, teddy need s a kiss good night."

* * *

"Hold it!" Two Suna ANBU said landing on either side of the two with weapons draw. "Stand up and back up slowly against the wall."

Slowly she rose, he bloody hands pulling from the insides of the body. "If you would have let me continued, he wouldn't have died. I had his heart running on my chakra…"

"And exactly who did this to him?" She kept quiet for a long time. "You're under arrest for murder. For our records, please state your name."

"Sakura Haruno."

The second ANBU pulled out special chakra limiting hand cuffs and hand cuff Sakura's hands behind her back. The first ANBU pulled out a clip board and began writing things down. "Do you understand the charges against you?"

"Yes."


	27. Chapter 27

Temari shook her screaming at her. "Just tell them what happened, you're not a murder! Sakura tell them."

"I told you, I don't remember anything, I just woke up with him lying there dying and I tried to save him! Why can't you believe me!" Sakura turned her attention to Gaara. "You guys know me! I delivered both you're children, I'd never kill unless it was necessary!"

"Under law I cannot release you, and if I pardoned you it'd look like I was giving preferential treatment to you because you're a friend." Gaara said and threw himself down in his chair. He sat quietly for a minute and sighed. "I can turn you over to Naruto with the charge still hanging over you. You'll remain in custody under him until we can prove your innocents. It's all I can do, I'm bound by politics."

"It's better then nothing." Sakura said.

Temari stomped out of the room swearing under her breath. Gaara turned to her, "what were you doing out at two in the morning?"

"Visiting Chiyo, I always visit her when I feel sad." Sakura said quietly.

"Would you like me to call and tell Naruto now or wait?" Gaara asked picking up the phone.

"Write a letter, I'll go back with the group that's coming to aid Shukaku." She said standing. She walked over to the window and looked out. "I have to go to a holding cell don't I?"

"I'm afraid so." Gaara said standing, "come on Sakura, I'll escort you down to the cells."

* * *

"Really, why do you need all that water, you damn kappa!" Karin shouted carrying two five gallon jugs of water. "If you need all this water you should carry it."

"But then I get tired, plus, you don't fight, remember, you're… what's the word?" Suigetsu said tapping his chin, "oh yea, almost completely useless. The only good you are is sensing and healing, both of which Katsuna can do."

Karin threw a jug and missed Suigetsu, Juugo caught it and held on to it. "Really you two… five years working together and you still bicker."

"Hey, Sasuke, why didn't you and Katsuna just go? With your Sharingan and her being like one of the best ninja ever you guys could just go in and kicked some ass and be out." Suigetsu asked.

"We had Mokuza, remember? Someone had to stay and watch him. Anyway, Katsuna hates the desert." Sasuke said.

"I hate the desert! I have to have chronically-rejected over there carry my water for me." Suigetsu said easily dodging the second jug which Juugo also grabbed. "Why couldn't you have taken some earth chakra people?"

"Because we already coordinate well. Saves time and effort." Sasuke said quickly. "Karin, do you sense anything yet, it's almost sun up. That's the time when Shukaku's supposed to attack and we're still a half an hour off."

"Nothing yet. He may be running late as well." Karin said quietly. "Why are we running late? I thought you scheduled this on time, Juugo?"

"I did, but the wind is not with us as it was when we started out. If it was, we'd already be there." He said.

"Hey, big guy, toss me a jug, I'm dehydrated already." Suigetsu said as he caught the toss and ripped off the cap. He drank half a gallon quickly and lowered the bottle down. "Anyone else want a drink?"

"Who'd want your disgusting germs, who knows what you've picked up from the waters around the country." Karin said turning her head away in disgust.

"Like I'd share with you anyway, heaven knows where your mouth has been." Suigetsu said smirking. Karin looked at him awkwardly. "You don't even get it, you get it Juugo?"

"No not really."

"Karin, he's calling you a whore." Sasuke said as they stopped quickly. "What's that smell, it's almost like sulfur."

"Oh, just off shore there's a volcano rising," Juugo said. "It must have erupted, they geologist said it would be big, the smell will only get stronger as it erupts more."

"Alright, as long as there's not one under us, it'd be very damaging." Karin said.

"Although I don't see how it could do any more damage to you Karin, seeing as you're already a wreck." Karin turned red and bottled her fists. "Oh, I think she got that one."

Juugo quickly moved over and caught Karin as she tried to attack. "SUIGETSU YOU BASTARD! I'M GONNA KILL YOU! THEN I'M GOING TO LEAVE YOUR BODY TO DRY UP IN THE DESERT, YOU STUPID KAPPA!"

"Both of you, stop it, we have to keep moving." Sasuke said quickly gripping his sword. "We have to go and stop one tail, if you become a problem for the mission I'll leave you here to die. Got it?"

"Nice motivational speech." Suigetsu said quickly. He took another swing of the open jug, "alright, let's get moving then!"

* * *

"No we've talk to has ever seen a horse…" Shino said upset. He pressed his glasses further up on his face and looked around. "I think this is futile."

"Someone's got to like horses, there's an entire city." Neji said. "But of course, we have to limit it to shinobi." Neji felt a tugging on his pants. "Hey, you're that little Uchiha boy, aren't you?"

"I'm Mokuza, have you seen my Aunt Katsuna? I took off after a duck and I can't find her." He said quickly. "And I have to go potty."

"I saw Katsuna running down that way. I'll go get her." Shino said running down after her. Neji looked down at him and Mokuza smiled. "Mister, I still have to go potty."

Neji looked around and saw nothing that would have a bathroom. "I don't know of any places near by that have a bathroom. Sorry."

"It's okay; I have a training diaper on. Want to see?" Mokuza said pulling the edge of it up beyond his pants. "I haven't used a diaper in four months."

"Aren't you using one now?"

"Not yet, I can hold for a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long time." Mokuza said and began to dance around a bit. He stopped and stared up at Neji, "mister if you took you're hair down you'd look like a girl even more."

"Mokuza!" Katsuna yelled sliding and picking him up. "Where'd you run off to?"

"There was a duck."

"There's always a duck. You've got to learn to stay by whomever's watching you." Katsuna said sticking a finger in his face. "Got it?" She poked him in the nose and kissed him on the forehead. "Thanks for watching him."

Shino dropped down next to them. "Do like horses?"

Katsuna smiled and looked away, "I used to have a horse until Kaiyomi disassembled him. Yeah, I still like them."

Neji reached into his bag and pulled out the scroll. "Here, it summons horses, but you have to think they are magnificent for them to fight for you."

"Here, why don't we let Mr. Aburame hold you for a second?" Katsuna said handing him over. She took the scroll from him and opened it up. Quickly she bite her finger and wrote her name. She went back to read the summons instructions and set the scroll down. "Let's give this a try, shall we?"

Katsuna flew through the signs and placed her hand on the ground. A large amount of smoke slowly swirled around and made a smoke horse that condensed into a brilliant white steed with golden armor. "Who has summoned the Lead of the Horses?"

"That was me… Wow, you're very… I don't know if I want to say beautiful if you're a guy, but that's what'd I'd use." Katsuna said. The horse neighed happily.

"My name is Bashiro, and I declare that we will fight for you." The horse said lowering it head. Katsuna quickly bowed back. Mokuza jumped down from Shino and squatted near the ground staring at him seeing the gold head plate he quickly smiled. "Aunt Katsuna, that's a really big ducky!"


	28. Chapter 28

"Sasuke, Shukaku's over there! We almost beat him here." Karin said as they kept running. Within a few seconds the large raccoon-dog was spotted by them and they stopped.

Sasuke turned to Karin, "go inform Gaara we're here and see about getting that they have of that translation. When we're done we'll come and get you. Suigetsu, Juugo, you're with me." Sasuke said as the three diverged from the group.

"So what's the plan of action, Sasuke?" Suigetsu said finishing off the first jug of water.

"Juugo's going to attack him and lead him away from the city, then Suigetsu, you're going to get him to stare at you while I burn one of his eyes out." Sasuke said stopping right before the beast. He turned and saw Suna. "Juugo get him to stop and turn around before he gets any farther."

Juugo rushed out throwing his cloak off and transformed changing his arm and running through trying to slice the beats legs. He rushed through to the back and hit the other one. Shukaku turned around and looked at him. "Pesky annoyance, I'll kill you first."

Juugo roared at him and run back a ways and sounded off again. Shukaku moved fast and Juugo quickly divided behind Suigetsu. Raising his sword, Suigetsu smiled. "I know they said the beast were hard to look at but man… It's stinging to stare at you. Your face would make a blind man flinch!"

The tailed beast stopped and raised a paw angrily and Sasuke acted quickly and set Ameratsu in his right eye. Sasuke quickly canceled it as he jumped across and jumped on top of the beast and sat down on the nose in front of his good eye. "Leave Suna or I'll take out your other eye."

"Who are you to barter with me? I am a great demon!" Shukaku screamed.

"Even with your powers, it'll take a couple hours to recover from that. Do you really want to be blinded that long? Or maybe I can just take you over." Sasuke put two fingers to his face and opened the eye more showing him the Sharingan. "If we wait long enough, they'll get that Jutsu that put you away in a tea kettle."

"All you Uchiha are the same! You think just because you have those eyes, you can control everything well you can't!" Skukaku roared and threw Sasuke off quickly launching him on the sand. Breathing in the beast tilted his head down and hit himself in the stomach. The blast sent sand flying up everywhere clouding the battle field. "You ignorant bastard, I hope that teaches you a lesson!"

Shukaku sat down and began laughing when a large fireball rose up into the sky. "I don't die that easily." Sasuke said; the sand cleared showing him standing calmly on the first of the three Roshomon gates, the bells on the sides ringing greedily. Sasuke looked down and observed the face on the gate. "You didn't even manage to scratch it. How worthless can you be?"

* * *

"Kankuro, we've got it!" Yelled a young translator waving a piece of paper. Kankuro picked it up and looked at it. "Are you sure on this?"

"Yes, it's to the letter." The translator said confidently. "You'll need someone who's good a precise chakra control like yourself to do it. However you also need to find a way to keep him still while you do it. It'll last a few minutes."

"Good work." Kankuro said and walked over to the window opening it. He looked around quickly. "Quick, do we have anything to put him in?"

"Um…" Quickly the translator began shuffling through paper and found a small glass ball. "It's breakable, but it'll work." She said tossing it. Kankuro caught it and jumped out the window and began racing across the city. As he hit the edge of the city he saw Shukaku running away. He continued running out and saw Juugo, Suigetsu and Sasuke walking toward him laughing.

"What'd you three do to him to make him run away?" Kankuro asked quickly.

"We started telling him Your Mama jokes, he started crying and took off." Suigetsu said and stretched his arms behind his back. "What's with the ball?"

"We just go the Jutsu to lock the tailed beasts away in objects; we were going to put him in here." Kankuro said quickly. "I guess all we have to do though is keep a couple of smart asses around to chase him off."

"Well let's go get Karin and get out of here." Sasuke said quickly and Kankuro stopped him. "What is it?"

"You're leading the team right?" Sasuke nodded. "You send them to the Kazekage office to fetch her, you better follow me."

"Why, what's going on?" Sasuke asked quickly as they disappeared towards the lower end of the city. Kankuro stopped outside a building and leaned his back against it and pointed to the door. "Why are we at the jail?"

"Because I'm not getting between Temari and Gaara. They've been arguing for four hours straight over her." Kankuro said quickly as the door burst open and Temari ran out crying in anger. "Hey, sis, wait up. Are you alright?"

Temari ad Kankuro disappeared off the scene and Sasuke entered the jail and saw Gaara leaning against the wall across from a cell. He turned his head, "Sasuke's here."

"Gaara, what's going on?" Sasuke said walking over as Gaara opened the cell and Sasuke looked in to see Sakura curled up into a ball on the bench. Sasuke walked in slowly and sat down on the bench and grabbed her shoulders, "Sakura, what's happening?"

"She's been arrested for murder. As soon as you leave, we'll begin investigating. We'll be sending her to stay in Konoha while the investigations going on. I'm afraid that if she stays here, word may get out and the relations between the people may be injured." Gaara said slowly. Walking foreword Gaara placed a hand on Sasuke, "Come and talk with me over here."

Sasuke followed him out of the cell and Gaara stood close. "She doesn't remember anything but trying to heal the deceased. After a while she went into a state of shock, she's been like this for the past couple hours."

"What happens if she's convicted?" Sasuke asked quickly.

"I'm forced by law to do this and you know I really do want to. The best thing we can do is…"

"Gaara, Kazekage, what will happen if she did kill him?" Sasuke whispered and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"She will be put into one of Suna's worse jails because of how much the body was mutilated, and if she's found to do it of planning, she'll be put to death." Gaara said. "Get her out of the country." Gaara quickly walked out and shut the door behind him.

Sasuke walked over and sat back down and pulled Sakura's arms off her legs and lifted up her head. "Sakura, can you hear me? We're going home to Konoha." Sakura had blank eyes and as soon as Sasuke let go of her head it dropped. Sasuke stood up next to her and picked her up and walked her out of the jail and ran across town to the gate and stepped outside and leaned against the wall. "If you can hear me, don't worry. Gaara, Naruto and I will protect you."


	29. Chapter 29

"I've cross checked it with the file you found on Madara Uchiha. The scars and attributes match." Shizune said tiredly. She pulled the cloth over Madara's head and turned to Sasuke. "It is indeed, Madara Uchiha, he is dead, Sasuke. Kind of feels good knowing a monster's dead doesn't it?"

"No, I wanted to kill the bastard." Sasuke said turning to leave. "Kaiyomi will be here in the morning, I signed his body over for her cadaver lab."

"Sasuke… Did Sakura really kill that man?" Shizune as quietly.

"Personally, no. She's killed before but this had to be enough of a shock to make her memory skip. I just hope Gaara find out the truth and she gets set free instead of put to death. She's too good of a kunochi to lose." Sasuke Stopped and turned around, "anyway, think of who the Hokage is, Shizune."

"Yes, but Naruto's learning the rules too. I don't think…"

"You're right, you're not thinking. You don't know those two like I do; they'll do anything to keep the other alive even when they hate each other." Sasuke walked out and left the autopsy room.

* * *

Naruto set the scroll from Gaara down and sighed covering his face. He ran his hand down and covered his mouth to swear. He rolled the scroll up and stuck it in his pocket as he moved from his chair over to the door and went out slamming it in his wake. He stormed out of the main hall way to the stairs and went down to the last level and slammed into the doors opening them. There in the center of several watching ANBU was Sakura, calm and quiet.

"Lord Hokage, we think that with the accused being..."

"Out, all of you." Naruto said swiftly as he walked over to Sakura and looked down at her. None of the ANBU moved. He looked around at them, "I gave you an order! All of you get out now!"

The ANBU vanished and Naruto sat down in front of Sakura. She looked up and stared at him. "What's going to happen to me?"

"I don't know yet. I need to see your finger nails though, the man that was killed had scratches on his wrists and face, usually associated with an opponent trying to fend off an attacker." Sakura held both of her hands out and Naruto looked at them. "They're clean."

"Do they know what happened after I visited Chiyo?" Sakura asked quietly.

"You were at a bar. It's why you can't remember anything; you pulled a Tsunade and got completely drunk." Naruto said quickly and turned around to see the room. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some package junk food. "I know they don't feed you well in here. Eat quickly, you'll need the carbs." Sakura took it and began to scarf it down. "I'm going to have them lessen the ANBU, five is too many for someone who won't run. I'll have one inside with you, any preferences?"

"Is Yugao available? I'd like to have a girl to talk to." Sakura said quietly.

"I'll go call her in. Until then you'll have to make due with whomever's in the hall." Naruto pulled out a picture. "I received this from Konan, can you tell me about it?"

"It was tattooed on first, and then it was burned on to elevate it permanently. If you can get the skin I can tell you more about it." She said handing back the picture.

"I'll make sure to get you to a body then."

"You mean bring a body here."

"No. I'll see you later, Sakura." Naruto said walking out. He turned to the ANBU and pointed to one. "You, inside until I have Yugao relieve you, the rest of you are dismissed."

* * *

Sasuke smiled and hung up the phone. He walked out of his room and tapped Katsuna on the shoulder, "we have a very serious favor to do for somebody. We need to get going."

"I thought you two were going to stay for dinner." Itachi said as Mokuza attached himself to his father's legs. "Or are you tired of Mokuza?"

"We never get tired of Mokuza, we just have something to go do." Sasuke said. "We'll see you tomorrow Mokuza."

The little boy ran over and reached his hands up for a hug. Sasuke picked him up and held him. "Bye uncle Sasuke." Mokuza hugged him and reached over for Katsuna who took him and gave him a good squeeze. "Bye Aunt Katsuna."

"Bye kid-o. Behave your father, later Itachi." Sasuke said as Katsuna put him down. Katsuna waved and followed Sasuke out into the main road of the Uchiha district. "You know that tally you keep of criminal acts…?"

"I'm going to be adding to it, aren't I?" Katsuna smiled.

* * *

The door to the holding room was opened and Yugao walked in. "I'm here to relieve you." The ANBU nodded and walked carefully out of the room the door shutting. Yugao put her ear to the door and listened. After a minute she stood up and laughed. "I can't believe that worked."

"Huh? Worked?" Sakura said lightly. Yugao's fingers went up and a giant cloud of smoke filled the area and slowly washed away. There stood Naruto giggling. "NAR…!"

Naruto shoved a hand over her mouth and put a finger to his lips. "You've got to be quiet." He took his hand off and went behind her and pulled out a kunai and cut the restraints. Naruto pulled them off completely and grabbed her hand dragging her to her feet and tried to pull her along but she stopped him.

"What are you doing, you idiot?"

"That's not what you say to someone who's saving you." Sakura pulled her hand back and sat back down and lowered her head. "Are you pissed at me again or what?"

"You and I will both get in trouble if we get caught."

"Then we won't get caught. Come on Sakura, don't make me carry you out." Naruto said crossing his arms, "you know I will do it."

"If they catch you, they'll take away the title of Hokage and throw you in jail."

"Like I care." Naruto said and grabbed her shoulder and knelt down. "You have three seconds to stand on your own, or I will carry you kicking and screaming out of here." Naruto removed his hand and they stood up simultaneously. Suddenly both heads shot to the door.

"Someone's coming." Sakura managed to get out before Naruto grabbed her and flashed to the watch out room above and holding room and he let go of her looking out the one way glass. Yugao burst in with several other ANBU. "Someone's taken her, find them!"

Naruto grabbed on to her again and blindly flashed to the woods near the river and found himself pinning her against a tree. Naruto stepped back, "sorry, I don't know the area around here very well."

"It's about time you got here." Sasuke said looking over at them.

"Hi Sakura," Katsuna said. "We'll be escorting you to the border with Rain."

"Katsuna's going to cloak your chakra and Sasuke's going to give anyone who spots you a nice little illusion." Naruto said quickly. "Konan's going to be waiting at the border, you'll be staying with her and Nagito in exchange for help with the tattoo thing I showed you earlier."

"We better get going, that would be the alarm sounding." Sasuke said. "What are you going to use for your alabye, Naruto?"

Slowly Kyuubi leaked out of him and formed on his head. "He was training with me. By the way, Naruto, you owe me one for lying." The fox said scratching repeatedly at his head. "Don't you ever comb? Your hair's in knots?"

"Not now, Kyuubi." Naruto said. "If you guys get caught, it's your idea, you're helping at your own risk."

"We know that. Sakura, let's move." Sasuke and Katsuna disappeared and Sakura turned to him. "You're still an idiot, but a good friend Naruto."

"Now get going before you get captured. They're waiting across the river." Naruto said and flashed away. Sakura jumped across and landed next to the pair of Sharingan eyes. "If you can, change your form, it'll help a lot." Sasuke said quickly as they took off and Sakura turned into Pakkun. "Nice disguise, should ask Pakkun what he thinks of it."

"That's the pug right? All those dogs are confusing." Katsuna said as they flew along.


	30. Chapter 30

Sasuke, Katsuna and Sakura disguised as Pakkun stopped next to Konan who stood under an umbrella in the light rain. She looked up and looked them over. "Where's Sakura?"

Sakura transformed back and smiled over at Konan brushing her hair back. "Hello Konan, haven't seen you in a while. How's everything?"

"I didn't tell anyone, so have fun telling Sakura." Sasuke said quickly. He turned to Katsuna, "we better get back before we're missed."

"We'll just say it was one of the spontaneous holidays I make you go on." Katsuna chimed. "See you later guys, tell Nagito we said hi!" Katsuna dragged Sasuke away.

Konan turned quickly to Sakura and handed her an umbrella. "You'll need this; it gets worse the closer we get to the city." Konan said giving her a black umbrella. Sakura popped it open and they began walking back towards the city. "I'm six weeks along."

"Along what?" Konan patted her lower belly. "No, really? That's great news!"

"I know, we're so excited but we're busy building on, we figured we should add a room or two anyway. Now, about the case. About a week and a half ago we had seven men with the burned tattoo attack Rain, they weren't very skilled and didn't seem to have any use of chakra. We believe someone's trying to get us to invade Grass and start something."

"Start something? Maybe they're playing off old feelings. Trying to get you guys to seem like you're trying to conquer the world again." Sakura said and heard something behind her and whipped out a kunai behind her and stopped.

"Sakura, it was a cricket… You're a little too jumpy."

"I'm just afraid someone's going to find me, that's all." Sakura said and turned to continue to walk. "I guess you know the feeling that you're afraid someone will find you."

Konan walked over and put her arm around Sakura, "it'll be okay. Nagito and I have killed hundreds of people, what's the difference between you and me?"

"You were a con and I was visiting an ally."

* * *

Temari burst the door open and pulled in a little girl and sat her down in a chair across from Gaara. "This is Kimi, she says she saw something she shouldn't have. Will you tell the Kazekage what you saw?"

The little girl nodded and turned towards Gaara. "I saw a pink haired lady being followed the other night by a bad guy."

"How do you know he was a bad guy?" Gaara asked delicately.

The girl puckered her lips and looked away. "He had a knife in his hand. But the good guy stopped him." The girl said cheering up. "I ran home after I saw the good guy tackle the bad guy."

"Thank you Kimi." Gaara said pulling out a sucker. "You've been a good girl. Temari here is going to take you home, alright?" Gaara handed it to her and she pulled off the wrapper and stuck it in her mouth. She grabbed Temari's hand and was lead out of the room.

"What does that prove?" Kankuro asked quietly.

"Nothing, except we have someone who knows what happened." Gaara said quickly. "I have an idea, she was followed from the bar right? She must have been targeted from the forehead protector."

"We get a kunochi who can stand her drinks to get in there in disguise and leave acting drunk, see if she's followed." Kankuro said. "I'll start seeing who's a heavy drinker."

"Well, you can turn into a girl can't you?" Gaara smiled and Kankuro put a hand on his forehead. "Who would be better, and then I can have a team follow you on the roof tops."

"Fine, fine. I'll go get it arranged, but you owe me one." Kankuro said leaving.

Gaara waited until he was gone before he started laughing. "I have to go get a camera."

* * *

"Hi Itachi." Karin said walking into the house. "When will you be back?"

"Later tonight. Just let him run rampant and follow him around. And don't let him near any ducks." Itachi said. "Mokuza, Karin's here, she's going to be babysitting you."

Mokuza popped his head around the corner. "I like it when Aunt Katsuna baby-sits me."

Karin's head dropped. She took a breath as Itachi left and raised her head. "What if I said I was just as fun as she was?"

"Yeah, but Suigetsu says you're useless! How are you going to fight off the broccoli monsters he's always telling me about?!" Mokuza yelled and began crying and running away. "The broccoli monsters are going to get me all because you're useless!"

Karin pulled out a tape recorder and pressed the red button. "Note to self; maim and torture Suigetsu before killing him." She let go of the button and put the recorder back in her pocket and ran down the hall to Mokuza room and went in. "Mokuza, where are you? I checked, there aren't any broccoli monsters around."

Mokuza stuck his head out from under his bed. "Really?" He crawled out and looked behind her. "Good, I'm hungry, can you go take me out for food."

"Why don't I cook something?" Karin said taking his hand and leading him out.

"Suigetsu says you reek at cooking. Karin, what does reek mean?" Karin hung her head. "I think it means terrible, or maybe horrible, are you horrible at cooking? Aunt Katsuna's good at cooking, the other day she made cookies in the shape of ducks. Karin, I like ducks, Aunt Katsuna can summon this big duck, it's cool."

Karin smiled, "You know, Katsuna's not really your aunt."

"I know, Uncle Sasuke told me, but he said I should get used to calling her that." Mokuza said grabbing a cookie off the counter.

Karin knelt down and looked at him. "What else did uncle Sasuke say?"

"Uncle Sasuke says that you shouldn't hang upside down for extend periods of time unless your use to it. I'm still hungry, Karin. Can we go get food now?" Mokuza said rushing towards the open door.

* * *

Itachi walked out into the woods and began going around to various places picking the kunai from out of the target. He found the stepping stone he left from when he was younger and jumped into the air, spinning and systematically releasing the kunai hitting all the targets. "I need to rearrange the targets…"


	31. Chapter 31

The woman stumbled out of the tavern falling about in her heels muttering to herself. She rounded a corner and noticed someone behind her and kept going. She walked until there was a closed alley and stumble to the end. "Hey pretty lady," said the man following her. "Not from around here are you…"

Kanukro changed back into himself and turned around. "Nice knife, and I see it's still covered in blood." The man tried to run and several ANBU jumped down behind him. "You are under arrest for murder, and trust me, your lucky we didn't have Konoha come investigate, you'd be dead right now."

The man dropped the knife and was taken by two of the ANBU when he tried to run. Temari and Gaara looked down at the scene from a rooftop. Temari turned and slapped Gaara upside the head, "I told you. Next time listen to someone who knows what they're talking about."

Temari disappeared as Gaara dropped down and rubbed his head with one hand. Kankuro looked down at him, "hey what's that? Is that a camera?" Gaara smiled and held the camera away and block Kankuro with the other hand. "Give it back, what use do you have with that picture?"

"I'm going to show it to any future girlfriends!" Gaara began scrolling through the camera, "here's you sashaying out of the bar, and here's you nearly tripping over your own heels. Do you want to see the video I took?"

"If I wasn't related to you I'd kill you!" Kankuro yelled still trying to get at it.

* * *

"Nope, I told you, I don't know anything about her break out." Naruto lied to Shizune. "How did she escape again?"

"I know you did this! If she's…" There was a loud knocking on the door and Shizune stopped and opened it. Temari slowly walked in out of breath. "Are you alright."

"She's clear, I came here myself to tell you. I've been running for a day straight. Where is she?" Temari said sitting down on the floor.

Shizune smiled. "What do you know, Naruto and I were just discussing how he smuggled her out of the country for her protection. Weren't we Naruto?"

"I have no clue what she's talking about. I didn't smuggle anyone anywhere. Hey Shizune, why don't you take Temari to a guest room for the night, I'll see if another country know of her whereabouts." Naruto said smiling. Shizune growled at him and helped Temari up. "I'll see you tomorrow Shizune. I'm turning in."

Naruto flashed outside and jumped across the city and headed towards the Uchiha district. Walking through the gates he came to the first door and knocked. Suddenly the door opened to Karin. "Naruto, nobody's here right now."

"What? Where's Sasuke, didn't he ever come back?"

"Katsuna dragged him away on a spontaneous holiday. Itachi's who knows where, but if you want to talk to Mokuza…" Karin said.

"No, I've got to call Sasuke then."

"His phone's off." Karin said quickly. "Mokuza wanted to say goodnight to him but it just goes to the voicemail."

"Then I've got to track down Itachi. Later Karin." Naruto said and flashed away to the edge of the Uchiha district where it meets the forest. He slowly began in and heard the sound of Kunai hitting. Running in he saw Itachi landing with targets all around him, each one with a kunai. "That's talented; I still can't throw even one straight."

Itachi turned around. "Oh, Naruto. What is it?"

"I need you to call Rain and tell them that Sakura's been cleared and she can come home." Naruto said quickly. Itachi reached in his back pocket and pulled out his phone and tossed it at him.

"Nagito will probably pick up, just tell him it's the nine tails and that you want to talk to her." Itachi went around pulling the kunai out while Naruto scrolled through Itachi's contacts and came across Rain and pressed talk. "Hello?"

"Hi this is the nine tails, can I speak with Sakura?" Naruto said quickly.

"Yeah sure…" Nagito said and there was a ruffling of the phone a few seconds of discussion and the phone was answered. "Naruto?"

"Hey Sakura, they've cleared you. You can come home," Naruto said smiling. "So how's Rain?"

"Well, it rains… a lot. Konan was just about to teach me some of Rain's traditional recipes, can I talk to you when I get back?"

"Only if you promise me you'll make me some food when you get back, everyone's not feeding me since they all know I helped you escape."

"Are you in trouble?"

"No, there's no way to prove it was me, they just have dead on lurking suspicions." Naruto laughed. "Well, go learn, I'll be waiting for you to come back. Bye Sakura."

"Bye Naruto." The phone hung up and Naruto shut it and handed it back to Itachi. "Thanks for letting me borrow the phone."

"Just ask her out already." Itachi said quickly shoving it away. "I have spent the past five years watching you two dance around the topic, and it's getting annoying."

"Last time I asked she punched me in the face… but maybe it was because I sneaked into the girl's spa to ask her, huh?" Itachi rolled his eyes and began to walk away. "Hey Itachi, that job offers still on the table."

"I know. It's just, I'd have to have someone watch Mokuza every day, and I don't really like to leave him alone for long periods of time." Itachi softly spoke. "But I've been thinking about it."

"Normally I'd say take your time, but that's gone, there's a week before I pull in the new ANBU. I need an answer, Itachi."

"And I won't go into battle, at all?"

"Nope, you'll be here teaching. So, do you want to be the ANBU trainer?" Naruto asked quickly. "I know you'd be good at it, you're the most rigorous, intense trainer there is hands down."

"I'll take it then."

"Good, be at my office in the morning, I'll give you the books and notes from the last trainer." Naruto flashed away.


	32. Chapter 32

"You know every time, every time, we go on vacation, we come back with shopping bags full of clothes." Sasuke complained as they walked into Katsuna's apartment and set them down. "Did you even make it through all the clothes we got last time?"

"Yeah, but now, I'm done shopping for clothes," Katsuna said opening her closet, "this bunch should fill it up completely. You're not mad at me for buying all these clothes are you?"

"No, it's your money; you spend it however you want to." Sasuke said wrapping his arms around her and smiling. "Besides, you like getting new clothes."

"Ah, now you know me too well. Hey, what did you spend your money on?"

"I didn't spend any money."

"You're lying. You left with a wad and came back with a few bills." Katsuna said freeing an arm to stick a finger in his face. "Don't lie to me Sasuke. Did you put down a down payment on a new car or something?"

"You caught me, though, it's not a car. Guess." Sasuke said and kissed her on the cheek and walked over to sit down on the bed and take his shoes off. He looked back up and her and flung himself back and smiled. "Go on, guess."

"You actually want to play a guessing game? I'm kind of shocked. You're buying me a motorcycle?"

"No, you just ride mine anyways, what's the point in having two? Plus you piss people off when you drive up the walls on one, why would I let you do that everyday?"

"Give me a hint," Katsuna said walking over and sitting down next to him. "And not one of those vague hints like 'it's an object' either." She said and moved to sit on him. "And no funny business either, I remember the last time you made me guess an item."

"That was hilarious though." Sasuke said and looked up thinking. "It's unusually small."

"New weapons?"

"No. It's in a box."

"The world's most expensive coffee."

Sasuke began laughing. "I knew it; you're completely lost aren't you?" Sasuke reached into his ninja pouch and pulled out a small box and opened it. "Kat, will you marry me?" Katsuna began laughing and stood up off him. "So…"

Katsuna quickly flung herself on him kissing him quickly. "I have to go scream in private really quick, I'll be right back." She said and walked into the bathroom closing it behind her. Sasuke sat up and waited; he heard her start screaming and began laughing. The screaming stopped and Katsuna calmly walked out and grabbed the ring from him putting it on. "You spent too much on this."

"I know, but it's worth it for that reaction." Sasuke said and Katsuna sat back down on him and kissed him.

"You two need to learn what a closed door is." Itachi said standing at the entrance of the apartment carrying an arm load of books. Katsuna pulled off and moved over. "So, what's with all the smiles?"

Sasuke grabbed her hand and held it out. "We're engaged."

"Congrats… Does this mean you're moving out? I need an office." Itachi said. "I just made the new trainer for ANBU."

"It's about time you took that job." Itachi laughed quickly and Sasuke stood up and stretched. "So, you're making me pick out a house?"

"The only one available is next to mine, the rest are filled with people who need housing from the demon attacks." Itachi said. "I'll see you guys later, I'm going home to play with Mokuza."

"We'll be along in a bit." Sasuke helped Katsuna up, "we get to start packing up your stuff."

"I have a better idea." Katsuna shut the door and locked it and came back over and pushed him down on the bed.

* * *

"You." Sakura said walking into Naruto's office and shutting the door. "Are the dumbest Hokage ever, you know that right?" She crossed her ands and walked over sitting in a chair on the opposite side of his desk.

He put down his pen and folded his arms as well and smiled. "That's got to be the third time I've heard that today, you got anything better?"

"I'd start telling stupid jokes but I'm afraid you wouldn't get them."

Naruto placed his hand on his heart and pretended to be hurt. "Oh, you got me." Naruto lowered his head and stuck out his tongue.

"You're really something else you know that."

"Makes me interesting." He said perking back up. He tapped the desk. "I'm waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"Oh, I don't know," Naruto said standing up and leaning against the side of the desk, "'oh, Naruto, thank you for getting me out of that terrible prison, you're my hero,' something like that."

"You busted me out when I didn't need to be, and then you told Sasuke and Katsuna if we were captured it was all on them. I bet Sasuke even came up with the idea, just like he did the fall back plan for the demon attacks."

"Actually this one was mine. Sasuke would never think to disguise himself as a girl. By the way, that's how they caught the real killer. Gaara made Kankuro disguise himself as a visiting kunochi and get drunk. He has it on video he's going to send it when he gets it make on tape."

"You seriously weren't worried about it, were you?"

"I knew you were innocent." Naruto said sitting down smiling. "Anyway if I was wrong we'd both just be fugitives hiding in Rain."

"You could have lost your title, Naruto."

"Having a friend is far more rewarding then having a job. Plus, you're the new assistant to the Hokage, remember. Now, will you go get us some lunch, I haven't eaten in two days. Shizune stopped feeding me."

"You are so needy…"

* * *

"Daddy!" Mokuza said running inside and tugging on Itachi's pant leg, "there's a large blue man outside asking to see you."

"Mokuza, stay inside alright?" Itachi said patting his head and heading outside shutting the door behind him. "It's called forewarning, Kisame."

"I'm faster then the mail… We've got a problem, partner." Kisame said letting go of his sword handle. "I just got here from Iwa, we were fighting the two tails and something happened."

"You actually lost?"

"Worse, the cat went missing halfway through. Vanished into thin air." Kisame said and looked down at Itachi. "Plus there's a new thing going on with several smaller countries. Half wit men who think they're ninjas are trying to stir up controversy, they've got the symbol for grass tattooed on them."

"You should tell the Hokage."

"One of the one's I killed had the Akatsuki sealing technique."

"You don't think they're trying to create another statue, do you?"

"I don't know, but I came to give you warning. Plus, I don't get along with authority figures very well, so you go talk with them." Kisame scratched his head. "Can I crash on your couch?"

"Go ahead, but watch Mokuza, and don't let him around any ducks."

"Ducks, why not?"

"He tries to adopt them." Itachi said disappearing.

* * *

**End part Two**


	33. Chapter 33

**Part Three: Demons

* * *

**

Sakura rolled over and nudged Naruto. "Get up; you have a meeting with the four new ANBU in twenty minutes. Then you have to go and file classified papers." Sakura looked at him as he moved over and muttered 'yeah yeah yeah' and seemed to go back to sleep. Sakura slapped him on the back hard. "Up and at 'em!"

"Alright, I'm moving." Naruto said doing a push up and sitting up against the wall rubbing his face. "I'm not going to get to shave today am I?"

"You can shave tomorrow." Sakura said sitting up and rolling out of bed. She grabbed her dress off the floor and put it on. She walked over to her purse and pulled out a hair brush and stood in front of Naruto's mirror fixing her hair. While brushing she glanced over at Naruto. "You look upset."

"You're trying to make everything go back to normal aren't you? Act like that never happened."

"It's easier, Naruto."

"You've never taken an easy way out in your life." Naruto said getting up and grabbing her shoulders. "Can you honestly say you want to end up like Tsunade and Jirayia? You and I both know they died with regrets about the other."

"I think about it. I'll bring our breakfasts to the office. Don't forget to bring in the files on the new ANBU, I've set them on the bedside table." Sakura grabbed her purse and walked out.

* * *

"Hi daddy." Mokuza said walking into the kitchen rubbing his eyes. He turned his head and smiled. "Are you making breakfast Aunt Katsuna?"

"Yep, I'm making eggs do you want to help?" She asked and Itachi snorted. "That's a bad idea, Katsuna. He likes to dump the eggs on his head."

"Oh, he'll be fine; you just have to teach him how to put them in the bowl. Right Mokuza?"

"YEP!" Mokuza yelled and began reaching for the eggs. He stopped and turned around, "hey Uncle Sasuke, what's with the weird clothes?"

"An ANBU uniform…" Itachi said smiling over, "so I get to teach baby brother a thing or two."

"Yeah I know, I just decided that since I'm actually planning on staying in the village now I mind's well actually work for it." Sasuke said walking in and patting Mokuza on the head. "Plus mercenary work isn't all it cracked up to be."

"Morning" Katsuna said and they kissed quickly. "I don't know if breakfast is going to be ready in time."

"I'll eat later. So did we decided who's taking Mokuza today?" Sasuke asked quickly. "I have my training."

"I have to conduct the training." Itachi said quickly.

"I have my mission to leave for in a bit." Katsuna said and the all stopped. "What about Shikamaru and Kurenai?"

"Shikamaru's out in Water and Kurenai's training her new team. They already have Yui with Shika's parents." Sasuke said leaning against the counter. "Isn't Kisame here?"

"You want to leave a small child with him?" Itachi asked.

"If I knew them better I could summon a horse to watch him, but I wouldn't trust any of them with him right now." Katsuan groaned continuing to cook. "There has to be someone.

Sasuke bit his finger and quickly went through the motions and hit the ground. The small smoke disappeared leaving the pug sitting there looking up at him. "Congratulations on becoming ANBU, but did you have to summon me so early in the morning, Sasuke?"

"Can you watch Mokuza, Pakkun? We all have things to do today and there's nobody left."

"I'm a ninja dog not a baby sitter." Pakkun said slowly. "I'm supposed to be used for missions and things, not babysitting."

"Then train him, he like to throw things." Katsuna said quickly turning off the stove. She pulled out a kunai and set it down. "Teach him how to throw a kunai."

"Fine, fine, I'll watch him, but I expect something in return, like a treat or some food. Maybe even some cash." Pakkun said picking up the kunai in his mouth and walking over to the kid. "Hi."

"PUPPY!" Mokuza said squeezed Pakkun. "Can I keep him daddy?"

"Of course, Mokuza. You two have a fun day, keep him away from ducks." Itachi said and patted his son and the head and took off with Sasuke. Katsuna moved the eggs onto a plate and laid them on the floor with a fork. "I've got to go take off to, bye Mokuza."

"Bye Aunt Katsuna." Mokuza said letting go of Pakkun to hug her.

"Bye sweetie." She said kissing him on the forehead and vanishing into a poof of smoke.

"So what are we going to do now puppy?" Mokuza asked causing Pakkun to sigh.

* * *

"It's a tattoo, of course it's going to hurt." Itachi said to the four taking them to a small tattoo parlor. Itachi stepped in and was greeted warmly by a heavily decorated man. "Kazu, four ANBU."

"Haven't done any of those in a while, who are my victims?" He said looking up and seeing Sasuke next to Tenten who had Hinata hidden behind her and Shino at the far side. The artist laughed, "ladies first, I like to hear them scream."

Hinata fainted but Shino caught her. He looked up, "you may want to do her's while she's out."

"Alright, bring her over." Kazu said quickly and flipped the chair around. Itachi sat down at the next chair over and pulled out gloves. "You do the guys I'll do the girls, Itachi."

"First lesson the ANBU tattoo goes on the right shoulder for girls and the left for boys. It tells gender when you're on the field and if you forget a teammate's mask will help you identify them." Itachi said preparing the needle. Shino set Hinata down the chair and the guy began to tattoo her arm. "Shino, in the bag, there's four blocks of clay for masks, while you're waiting you're to shape and paint your masks. You have to do the animal chosen for you. Those are also in the bag. Teten." Itachi said moving the chair around to face the same way as Hinata's.

Shino opened the bag as Tenten sat down in the chair. He tossed a block of clay to Sasuke and flipped through papers and handed the one with his name on it over. Sasuke looked it over quickly. "I got snake, what'd you get Shino?"

"Beetle. Tenten you have rabbit, and Hinata has rat." Shino said reading them off.

Tenten winced and made a little pain full noise as the needle touched her arm. "It'll be good to remember who has what. Makes it easier in combat." Itachi said as he finished making the lower outline.


	34. Chapter 34

"It's only ten, he better pick up." Kaiyomi said staring at her watch. She tapped her foot angrily on the floor and turned around, "Ruki, out of that corpse young lady, you can only dissect when I'm helping you! Damn it Itachi, pick up already!"

The phone picked up on the other side. "Hello?"

"It's Kaiyomi, we've got really bad news on this end."

"So do we, a demon's gone missing."

Kaiyomi stopped, "how can you know that already, it just happened twenty minutes ago?"

"No, it happened two days ago that two tails went missing."

"No, three tails just went missing. I was watching him on a camera I installed by the ocean and he just up and vanished into thin air." Kaiyomi said. "He came up to bath in the sun and was there for a good nine minutes and he just disappeared and the watered rushed in and filled the hole he left in the water."

Itachi sighed, "but the one tails is still out there? This makes no sense."

"Ruki and I will be coming over to share the research we have on the demons and the chakra fusion, we'll see you guys in a couple days. Just keep your eyes open, things are going to hell and fast."

"Yeah, bye Kai." The line died. Ruki came over holding the lower left lobe of the lung, "he had abnormalities in the LLL, I thought you may want to check it out."

"Go put it back and stick him in the freezer then pack up, were going to Konoha."

"Alright." Ruki said walking over and sticking the part randomly back into the body.

* * *

Itachi walked calmly along the road along after he was done with teaching the ANBU class. The four of them had been assigned Sai as a captain and were to go on their first mission in an hour. Itachi sighed, and looked up at the stars above him. Suddenly he felt something in the ground; jumping back he grabbed a kunai and turned on Sharingan. "Whose there?"

"You… are jumpy Itachi Uchiha." The green leaves burst through the ground and opened up showing the green and white head. "I'd thought I'd report in quickly. There's a rumor going around that there's a new Akatsuki coming soon, something more terrible then ever. **I've already spoken with Pein, he's surprised someone had our sealing technique. **What do you want us to do?"

"Go to Grass, there's someone sending low levels into high causality situations trying to get attention, I want to know why. Kisame and I will handle the demons, but I have a feeling that they are connected." Itachi said quickly putting the kunai away. "And you're positive that this isn't Pein's doing?"

"**I think Konan would kill him if he even tried to leave the house, **she's taken control and doesn't really care of anything outside of Rain." Zetsu said slowly going into the ground. "I'll report back in a few days."

Zetsu leaves closed and he slowly sunk into the ground. Itachi continued on his way home and entered the house to the smell wet dogs. As he turned the corner he ran into Pakkun next to a sleeping Mokuza. Pakkun was dripping wet.

"You're kid's vicious, he dragged me into a pond chasing after a duck, then decided to try and go skinny dipping there. He also accosted some geese who went to happy about that. You're lucky I'm good at what I do. And, you can forget paying me, despite getting several unwanted baths today, it was fun and gave an old mutt something to do. Later Uchiha." The dog disappeared.

Itachi smiled and walked over to Mokuza and bent down shaking his back. "Hunny, let's get you in bed."

"Hi daddy…" Mokuza muttered lifting his head a bit. Itachi picked him up and carried him down to his room and set him down on the bed. "Are you going to be gone tomorrow too?"

"No, I'll be here with you, and we'll be able to play all day. Why don't we just let you sleep in your clothes tonight." Mokuza nodded and cuddled up to his pillow. Itachi pulled off his shoes and set them on the floor. Itachi got up and was about to walk out when Mokuza grabbed his hand. "What is it?"

"Will you sleep with me tonight? Those grey ducks might be back to get me." Mokuza said as pathetically as he could.

Itachi moved him over and sat down on the bed and took off his shoes and curled up next to him. "They're called geese, Mokuza, and they are mean birds. Not like ducks."

"Can I play with Pakkun more?"

"You'll have to talk to Uncle Sasuke about that when he gets back. Now go to sleep, okay?" Itachi said and ran his hand gently through the mop of hair and hugged him close to his chest.

* * *

"There still warm from the kiln, that's kind of cool." Hinata said putting her rat mask on. Hinata quickly took it off and tapped Tenten on the shoulder. "I forgot to put eye holes."

"Hinata, how can you forget to put something like that?" Tenten yelled but Shino stepped in. "Put it on and put a finger over where the center of each eye should be."

Hinata quickly did it and Shino pulled a kunai and made two scratches for each eye. Pulling it off he began scoring it over and over again. Tenten watched, "that's good idea, I didn't think of that."

"Technically, Hinata doesn't need eye holes if she has Baykugan on, but that drains her chakra quickly."

Sasuke and Sai jumped in through the window quickly. Sai held up a poster. "Our objective tonight is to capture or kill this man. He was seen in a village about two hours away. If we work efficiently, we should have him and be able to return with him by morning." Sai stopped, "what are you doing?"

Hinata looked up mashing her fingers together, "I forgot eye holes. Am I in trouble?"

"Why? You made a mistake; it is only human to error." Sai said quickly.

Suddenly the sound of broken clay could be heard. Shino began swiping the side of the kunai on the inside and held it up to Hinata's face. "Can you see alright with this shape?"

"Yes." Hinata said happily. Shino quickly began working on the other side.

Tenten sighed, "Shino, you've got to stop protecting Hinata, she's ANBU now, she should be fixing her mask."

"She is right…" Hinata said slowly. "I can take over."

"It's alright Hinata." Sasuke smiled and whispered over into Sai's ear. Sai looked at him, "you really think so?"

"Yea, it's somewhat obvious." Sasuke laughed. He stopped. "Oh, did I show you yet?" Saske pulled off one of the glove and held up his hand, "she made me get a band too."

"What's it made out of, I've never seen a black material used in engagement rings." Sai said quickly.

"It's not, I scorched it black." Sasuke said and put his glove back on. "It feels weird to be wearing a ring."


	35. Chapter 35

Sai called them to a stop, "Rabbit will lead beetle and rat to the address, he's been spotted there recently. Find anything you can on him there. Snake and I will proceed to a bar he attends nightly. Split." The three jumped away leaving said and Sasuke. "Our directive is to find the person behind these."

Sai pulled out two pictures of tattooed and branded skin bearing the Grass symbol. "Why is our mission different?"

"Naruto prefers to keep this as quiet as possible for the moment." Sai said. "We've got a person to interview, I want you to put them into a Genjutsu and conduct it while I look around their house for clues."

"Alright. What do you want me to investigate for?"

"The cover up mission." Sai said quickly. They took off through the trees and landed by a little house. "Be careful, we don't know what we're dealing with." Sasuke nodded and he alone approached the door and knocked.

* * *

"Hi Itachi!" Ruki said walking in the house and waving. She set her bag down, "I brought presents for Mokuza, where is he?"

"He's playing in his room, Ruki. It's the second door down the hall." Itachi said and the little girl ran down the hall and came thudding to a halt. Kaiyomi stepped in with her computer bag and held up a picture. "The four tails, this morning?" Itachi said looking at the date.

"I have the video from the past two, it's unlike anything I've ever seen, it's like they just stop existing. I don't think whomever's doing this isn't using the sealing technique for stealing them." Kaiyomi said and sat down on the couch pulling out her lap top and opening it. "It'll take a minute to open up, but I've also got some murder photos you may want to see, I think it's related."

"So you're not sure?" Itachi asked quickly. "We don't need un-relating information right now."

"Whether it's relating or not is unimportant, what's important is that I'm positive it's important." Kaiyomi said opening a file. "This is the three tails disappearing. As you can see the water just rushes in afterward, he's simply gone. Then this is the four tails this morning. It happened in Rock, hundreds of miles away from the one yesterday."

"Shukaku's still near Suna though. For any use of power wouldn't they need one first?"

"This is where I think this might come in handy." She closed the window and opened up a file and clicked on a photo. "We found him near a village on the outskirts of Rock."

"Is that a heart?"

"Burned black with chakra. Over the past two days Ruki and I have found nineteen others with the exact same problem. The cause of death was chakra strain on the heart." Kaiyomi pulled up a map and hit a key and nineteen little red dots appeared all over. "There's no pattern, no way to pinpoint the bastard who's doing my research."

"So, this is what happens during chakra fusion."

"Well, if you're doing it wrong and try to force it in to fast, you have to let the body adapt to new chakra, a fusion can take up to a full week if it's just one person. Anyway, the person who found out they could do it is trying to force feed these people. And there's one more thing connecting them."

"Let me guess they a tattoo of Grass's symbol?"

"Oh, so you do know a little something about this." Kaiyomi shut down the computer and pulled out a scroll. "This is chakra fusion, it is physically implanting chakra into another person from an outside source… but it works both ways."

"So you can rip the chakra out of a person, and then put it in?" Itachi said. "What happens on each end?"

"When you give, your permanently boosting the chakra, you're able to completely regenerate all the chakra that was put into you. The limits are endless." Kaiyomi pointed to the first few lines, "this goes into more detail on that. Basically, it's not sealing chakra into a person, it's giving it to them."

"Is the chakra rip out like what we did with the Jinchuriki?"

"Somewhat, but instead of ripping out most of the person own chakra first, it'll take out what the person pinpoints, there by avoiding the death of the person." Kaiyomi rolled up the scroll and handed it to him. "This is your copy, use it as you see fit."

"I'll write it out as a book and get rich off of it." Itachi joked putting it away on a shelf with some other scrolls. "We need to go show Naruto the information. He's got Sasuke out investigating it right now. Mokuza, Ruki, come on."

* * *

"Oh shit…" Kisame said looking over at the large statue slowly disappearing into the ground. He looked over to where seven tails was and saw the beast disappear into wind. "Great we've got competition."

Kisame quickly ran over and began writing numbers down on his arm with a kunai. Kisame looked up and saw the seventh eye open as the statue dropped into the ground. "Well at least things are getting interesting. Zetsu, did you get all that?"

"I got it. **I have to say whoever's doing this is a Hell of a lot more efficient then we were. **But they're going out of order." Zetsu said rising out of the ground. "I'll go report to Itachi."

"I'm coming too, so pop out of the ground will you, it's creepy where your taking a piss and your not sure where the hell you are." Kisame said and grabbed a part of Zetsu and ripped him out of the ground.

* * *

"He was defiantly the tattoo artist, there was a shop in his basement, anything on your end?" Sai pulled off his mask as they sat in the tree.

"He was in a high powered Genjutsu, he didn't know a damn thing. It was to the point he'd just blank out when ever the user needed him and could control his body. Besides that, he likes fishing, never seen the guy on the photo and clams to be the world's best dancer."

"So, we have no real leads?"

"I left the Jutsu on him, they make come back to him, but there was no sign of the user's presences and I don't think they can willingly tap into memory." Sasuke shoved his mask onto the top of his head. "When do you think the others will get back?"

"When they discover the place I sent them to doesn't exist."

* * *

"Maybe it's underground?" Tenten said and looked around.

"Maybe it was burned down in a fire? There does seem to be some foundation left." Hinata suggested.

"We've been staring at an empty plot of land for the past half an hour, there's nothing there and hasn't been there for a couple years." Shino said. "I feel we were set up for something."

"It does feel like that doesn't it?" Hinata said. "Maybe we got sent on busy work? Or this was a test and we failed!"

"Why would they do that? They do that during the chunin exams." Tenten said stopping to think.

"But what if it was a test?" Hinata said softly.

Shino put his hand on her head, "were full ANBU, relax. I feel this has been busy work. The Hokage probably had something he needed those two to do but couldn't send out just them in a new team. Let's get back." They all nodded quickly and jumped into the trees.


	36. Chapter 36

"So, so far, all we know is that the demons are disappearing randomly where ever they are and someone's trying to force chakra into people's bodies?" Naruto asked quickly and Itachi nodded. "And the guy wasn't consciously doing the tattoos and had no knowledge of it?" Sai nodded. "Someone bring me some good news."

"There's a new statue." Kisame said walking into the conference room with Zetsu behind him.

"**It appeared, absorbed a demon in a blink of an eye, and sank into the ground. **It was an exact replica of the Akatsuki statue except there were not arms and the eyes were arranged in a different pattern."

Zetsu said quickly and he turned to Kisame who looked at his arm. "Three, four and seven tails were absorbed. If two tails went missing in that thing, they took it back out. The eye was closed."

"_**I'm wondering about something… If they can steal them out of thin air, can they steal me out of Naruto?**_" Kyuubi asked quickly. They all stopped and looked at the tiny fox on top of Naruto's head. "_**And if they can do that, then I suppose they have a way of keeping the chakra separate in the statue so they can collect them as they please.**_"

"Don't worry nine tails; the seal is designed to keep the chakra flow constant. There's no possible way that all the chakra can be taken at once." Kaiyomi said reassuringly. "With your amount being the strongest I imagine it would take five hours to dissolve you from the Hokage. That would give you plenty of time to have him completely sealed off stopping the chakra completely."

"So, does any one have any ideas on what they're doing?" Naruto asked. "Any at all, because all we have right now is a bunch of information that we knows goes together but we don't know how."

"Putting things together takes time, Naruto." Itachi said slowly. "We do need to inform the eight tails Jinchuriki." Sasuke snickered quickly. "Then we'd probably need to get into contact with Nagito, he's very good at planning out strategies. We should also contact the Kazekage and get his ideas on this seeing as the two countries work closely together."

Naruto sighed quickly. "Sakura, call all of them and schedule it for two days from now. We'll have it here. Kaiyomi, could you prepare a full presentation on the burnt hearts?"

"Of course, Lord Hokage." Kaiyomi said quickly.

"Kisame, since you saw the statue, could you give a quick run down on it? Kaiyomi could give you footage of three and four tails disappearing." Kisame nodded. "Sai, I want your team to go and stake out the house, keep constant shifts, I want photos of who comes and who goes from every angle. Zetsu, could you go with them and keep a tab underground?"

"**Can I get paid?**"

"I don't see why not." Naruto said quickly. "I want this person captured, dead or alive. I am not dealing with another Akatsuki situation! Does everyone understand this?" The room went quiet. "You're all dismissed, except Sakura."

The room empty quickly and Naruto turned to Sakura, "two tails was captured for a time, right?" Sakura nodded. "But it's not in the statue anymore, right?" She nodded again. "And the cat's not running around anywhere in the world."

"Maybe it died." Sakura said quickly.

"Kyuubi, why aren't you captured or running around freely?"

"_**Because… I get your theory Naruto, just be careful with it. Last time, it meant an all out war.**_" Kyuubi said vanishing from his head. Sakura looked up at him. "You're worried a country has the power and are manufacturing Jinchuriki aren't you?"

"It happened last time. I'm almost positive, I just didn't want to be the person bringing in news of coming war." Naruto said standing and walking over to the window, "Konoha's been through so much in the past eight years, I'll be damned if I let them suffer anymore."

Sakura got up and stood next to him. "That's why you're a good Hokage, Naruto." She quickly pecked him on the cheek and began walking out. "And before you ask, no, I haven't thought about it yet."

Naruto heard the door shut and he smiled. "She likes me."

* * *

Katsuna felt a tugging on her pant leg and looked down to see Mokuza. "Aunt Katsuna will you tuck me in?" She pulled her hands out of the dishes and wiped them off to pick him up. She walked into the living room and saw everyone. "Stressed… a lot of stress. Kaiyomi! What are you doing here?"

"Delivering bad news." She said quickly as Ruki popped out from behind her and walked over and smiled. "Hi Katsuna, you got taller."

"That's the new heels. Ruki you should probably go to bed too. Where's everyone sleeping?"

"Ruki can sleep in Mokuza's room; he has a spare bed mat in the closet." Itachi said quickly. "Kai, you can sleep in Sasuke's old room and Kisame, you can sleep on the couch."

"Oh, the lovely couch." Kisame said throwing himself down on it. "You need to get a sleeper sofa."

Sasuke pressed into the room and walked back with Katsuna taking Mokuza from her. "Hey there little guy. Don't mind if I tuck you in to, do you?"

"I like it when you tuck me in, Uncle Sasuke, can you tell me a bed time story?" Mokuza said as Sasuke set him down on the bed and took off his shoes. "I like the one about the giant snake."

"Not tonight, I have to go back to work in a little bit. I just came to say goodnight to everyone." Sasuke said laying him down and kissing him on the forehead. "I'll be back as soon as I can and then we can play with the airplanes I got you." Mokuza nodded and Sasuke patted him on the head. He turned and saw Katsuna messing up Ruki's hair on purpose as she made her get on the spare mat. "I'll see you in the morning Ruki."

Katsuna took Sasuke hand and shut off the light and closed the door. "I have to take off…"

"Can I talk to you in the bathroom for a second?" Katsuna said and dragged him in there locking it quickly. After a minute or two passed Sasuke stepped out and Katsuna passed him. "I'll be at home, you tell them." She kissed him and walked out hugging Kaiyomi and left.

Sasuke thought for a second and walked out and leaned over Itachi in his chair. "Hey Itachi, you're going to be an uncle." Itachi looked up at him for a second and smiled grabbing him and pulled him into the seat rubbing his knuckles on Sasuke's head. "Alright, let go, let go, I have to go on my mission."

"Now you've got a really good reason to come home, huh?" Itachi said. "This means no more stunts."

Sasuke shoved him off and walked out while Kaiyomi followed him with her eyes. "Wait, is my Kat pregnant?"

"I take it you haven't spoken to them in a while; they've been engaged for a bit now."


	37. Chapter 37

"There's no mistaking it. He's dead, rigor has not set in yet, and he's slightly warm." Hinata said and moved the man's shirt up making an incision and pulled back the skin. "Thermometer." She held out a hand and Tenten handed it over as the rest stood and watched. Hinata slowly placed it in liver and watched the temperature rise slowly. When it stopped and pulled it out. "He's been dead a little over two hours."

"The door was opened with wire, the kunai flung from outside, perfectly lodged between the eyes." Shino said. "Someone knew we were getting close."

"Snake, Rat, look outside for any traces, find out where the nest was." Sai said quickly and the two went off outside. "Rabbit, beetle, take the body back to the village, kunai intact." The two vanished and Sai walked outside to see Hinata activating Baykugan. Sasuke began looking around and jumped up.

"Fourth branch, there's a small bit of wire." Hinata said as Sasuke landed on it.

"There's chakra left on it as well, whoever it was is very powerful but obviously off balance and had to use extra chakra to stay attached to the tree. I think it's a very large person, I'd even go as far as to say a body builder or a really fat guy." Sasuke said gathering up the wire and bringing it down. "Standard, Sai. Nothing really out of the ordinary."

"It was a clean kill. Hinata, run Baykugan, 100 meters, let's see if we can get any more clues." Sai said quickly. Hinata nodded and began.

* * *

"Here, it was the only place open this late." Sakura said handing Naruto the box of rice. She sat down and put her feet up on his desk and looked at it. "What?"

"It's not that late, it is?" Naruto looked over at the clock on his wall. "Seriously, it's one AM? Holy crap… When do Hokage's get to sleep?"

"You can go to bed, I'll stay up for a bit, it's just waiting for something to happen." Sakura said digging in to her food. Naruto looked at her then grabbed his food and mimicked her. "Being stubborn?"

"It's just you're here to assist me. How can you assist me if I'm sleeping." Naruto shoved a spoonful of rice into his mouth and swallowed it. "I have a question, where do you get the money to feed me?"

"I pay for it all. At the end of the year I just put in what I spent in the name of the city and get it all back. I also get to write off any clothes I need for diplomatic missions. Shizune taught me that." Sakura said smiling. "Tsunade taught me that you can write off Sake as long as you drink it while on the job."

"Those are things only a woman would discover." Naruto joked quickly and Sakura kicked one of his legs lightly. "You seriously think a guy could think of writing off clothes of all things?"

"That's a good point. So, what are we going to do until something happens? I have some cards." Sakura said reaching into her back pocket to pull them out. "You know how to play war?"

"Want to make it interesting? There's a game I picked up in Iwa that goes on top of any other game, helps you learn about friends and intimidation, if you can't keep your cool, you lose." Naruto said happily moving his feet down and sitting up setting his food aside. "If you agree to play it I'll tell you the rules."

"Alright. I'll play along." Sakura said moving her feet down and taking out the cards. "What are the rules?"

"You tell a truthful sentence about yourself in order to freak the other person out. Lie you lose, freak out you lose." Naruto said. "However, it can't be anything you can brag about."

"Fine." Sakura said and split the deck between them. The flipped at the same time. "Hokage's first."

"I wore my socks in the shower this morning." Naruto said and they flipped again.

"I've forgot to do you laundry this past week."

"I knew you forgot to do my laundry this past week."

"I have a stuffed chipmunk in my room."

"I stopped eating ramen a month ago."

"I named him Lucky."

"I cleaned my room by myself."

"I gorge on chocolate whenever I can."

"I can't stop thinking about you since that night." Sakura stopped and looked away setting her cards down. Calmly Naruto smiled. "I win."

"You pulled out something you know I can't beat, how is that fair?"

"When did I ever say it had to be fair?" Naruto asked looking over at her. "Sakura, I want to talk about this."

"I don't."

"Why not?"

"I just can't, Naruto." Sakura said and began to walk towards the door.

"I order you to stay." Naruto said quickly. Sakura stopped in her tracks. "Turn around." Sakura heels swiped the floor. "Come sit down." She walked quickly over and sat down and turned to him angrily.

"This, is an absolute abuse of power."

Naruto walked around and sat on the edge of his desk. "All I want is the truth, tell me it, and you can go."

"Every time you're around me, you make stupid decisions. I cloud your judgment, I shouldn't even be your assistant. When it comes to making tough calls you hold me back afraid I'll get hurt at the risk of injuring others." Sakura said standing. "That's why you idiot."

"I said truth, not something you've talked yourself into. Sit back down." Naruto said. Sakura kept walking away. "I said sit back down."

"I quit."

"I'm not through with you yet!" Naruto yelled getting up and grabbing her and. "Why won't you love me back?!"

"Because I hold you back! I've always held you back, I've always held Sasuke back! It's all I've ever done Naruto!" Sakura screamed ripping her arm back. "You have your chance at becoming the greatest Hokage we've ever had! You've earned this!"

"Sasuke gave me this! Tsunade was going to chose him but he lied for me and gave me the job." Naruto said quietly and turned away sitting down. "Sasuke gave the entire idea for the demon defense system, not me. I just helped explain it." Naruto sat down in his chair and threw his head down on the desk. "I don't deserve to be Hokage."

"Naruto, she was picking out who would lead the assault." Sakura said walking over and putting a hand on his back. "She decided weeks and weeks before that to appoint you."

"Really?" Naruto asked raising his head.

"Yeah, you didn't read the date on the scroll, it was dated for your 20th birthday. She thought she would surprise you with it as a present but she got sick." Sakura smiled, "besides, as if Sasuke would make a great Hokage? He likes to do things on his own."

"Sakura… You've never held me back. How could you ever think that about yourself?" Naruto asked her quietly. "Didn't anyone tell you the only limitations we have are set by ourselves? You were holding yourself back." He said standing. He was about to reach out a hand but stopped; pulling away he sat on the edge of the desk and looked away. "You can go, Sakura."

"You, you actually love me don't you?" Sakura said walking over and leaning her head on him. "I thought it was just a stupid little crush." Naruto shook his head. "I'll try to be as good to you as you've been to me."

"Sakura, are you…" Naruto fell to the floor and Sakura looked at him and felt dizzy falling over too. The door opened more and the snake mask was lifted. "Too bad they weren't a few more minutes into that, I would have felt bad."

Sasuke lowered his mask and headed down the hall over all the sleeping bodies and kicked open the library door and turned on the light. He walked over and began shuffling through papers and found what he was looking for and shoved it in his bag. He kept going and came across a document and smiled under the dried clay. "This will come in handy."


	38. Chapter 38

"Four AM, I'll probably be the only one in." Shizune said yawning carrying Kiki in one arm and a coffee in the other. She stepped inside and saw the sleeping body of one of the guards. "Sleeping on the job… Hey wake up!" Shizune said kneeling down and shaking him. "Hey…" She set Kiki down and raised her hand. "Dismiss!"

The man startled awake. He looked around for a second before Shizune started barking orders. "Go dismiss the Genjutsu on everyone! Hurry! Kiki come!" Shizune said and the little piglet ran after her as she burst into the Hokage's office and run up to Sakura and checked her then saw Naruto barely a foot away. She raised her hand again, "dismiss!"

Sakura shot up and looked around. "Shizune what happened?"

"Building wide Genjutsu, I don't know the facts yet. How could you fall prey to this, weren't you paying attention?" Shizune yelled.

"It was one in the morning, we were nearly asleep anyway!" Sakura yelled back and turned over to Naruto. "Naruto! Naruto! Wake up!" Sakura kicked him swiftly.

Naruto turned over and looked at her, "what happened? Last thing I remember…" Naruto eyes opened wide and he pointed a finger at her, "I remember you were about to…"

Sakura kicked him again. "Shizune, do we know who did this? They must have been high ranking. The security cameras must have caught something!"

"I'll go check, I'll have a full report ready in five minutes, Lord Hokage," Shizune said bowing and leaving. The little pig didn't leave but walked up to Naruto and nudged his face and squealed happily. Naruto petted her, "good morning to you too, Kiki."

Sakura slide over to Naruto, "I was kind of hoping you'd forget…"

"I don't let people out of things that easily." Naruto said sitting up. He picked up the little piglet and smiled at it. "Kiki, when you need to run off you stay and when you need to stay you run off, you need to learn the right way around things."

The piglet leaned over and licked him on the face and squealed. Sakura began laughing and Shizune walked into the room. "Nobody saw anyone and all the cameras were completely melted. I think it was an inside job."

"Is anything gone?" Naruto asked quickly standing up and handing Saukra Kiki.

"The library was broken into; the scrolls on chakra sealing are gone." Shizune said quickly, "and all the notes we have on the fourth's seal were taken. They're going through the rest to see if anything else is gone as well."

"Finger prints, hairs, anything?!" Naruto yelled walking out of the office. Shizune followed quickly saying no. "Put the village on lock down, no one in, no one out. This was an inside job, they knew exactly what they wanted to. Start with Ninjas, I want every house searched by the Hyuugas, have yourself search their houses. Get warrants on everyone. I want those scrolls found by tonight!" Naruto screamed staring in the library as several people were going through with checklists. Shizune began dashing through the hall and Naruto turned around to see Sakura standing meekly by his office door. He walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, I have an idea."

* * *

Katsuna heard the knocking and slowly sat up in bed and crawled over Sasuke to get to the bedroom and where she stretched. She began walking down the hall and heard the door open. She turned the corner and saw Hinata entering. "Hey Hinata, what's the big emergency?"

Hinata pulled out a small piece of paper, "by order of the Hokage, we've been ordered to search every house. There was a break in last night. I'm sorry to wake you so early." Hinata put her hands together and activated Baykugan. She stood there for a minute and put her hands down. "Sorry again to wake you Katsuna, congratulations on the engagement."

Katsuna watched as Hinata slowly turned and left closing the door behind her. Katsuna smiled and walked back down the hall and into the room where she nudge Sasuke. "Sasuke, why was there a Hyuuga in my house!?"

"Calm down, Kat. I got away with it. Poor Itachi, he'll have to have all his scrolls searched. That'll take hours." Sasuke sat up in bed and pulled her down next to him. "You know how I like to do things on my own right?" Katsuna nodded slowly, "I think I found a way to get close to this guy whose been stealing the tailed demons, if I can just convince Naruto it's what he needs to do. It'll be easy enough, but it's my big brother I have to worry about, Naruto's planning on making him an advisor, and Itachi will advise against my plan."

"Let me guess, it's dangerous and requires a lot of luck? Just like everything else you do." Katsuna stood back up and kissed him. "Don't mind me if I don't get involved, baby and all. I'll go make breakfast."

* * *

"Yeah, I'll be there Naruto." Shikamaru said getting up and grabbing a shirt. He opened the door and walked out to see Yui sitting at the table helping Kurenai making breakfast. "Be expecting a Hyuuga soon, there was a break in at the Hokage's building. I have to go help Naruto. I'll be back soon hopefully."

Shikamaru walked over and sat on the table next to Yui, "Be a good girl for mommy alright?"

"Okay, daddy." Yui said happily and Shikamaru bent over and kissed her on the head. Shikamaru walked over and kissed Kurenai on the cheek, "I'm visiting Azuma's grave first, anything you want to send?" Kurenai shook her head. "I'll see you when I get back."

"Bye Shika." Kurenai said giving him her attention. "Don't get injured this time." They kissed quickly and he left.

* * *

"What's down in the Hokage's tomb that we could possibly use? You're not reanimating their bodies are you?" Shikamaru asked quickly. "I have a thing with zombies, I don't like them."

"The real Hokage's library is back here. Shika, I want you to go through and see if we can develop a plan from them. I need a fail proof plan for defense, we can use anything in here." Kyuubi appeared on his head. "What's you comment?"

"_**You're over reacting and being stupid. There are things more deadly then me in there, Naruto.**_" They started down and began to pass the coffins and then the tables. "_**You're going to completely ignore me aren't you? I'm trying to help! How often do you have that happen?**_"

"Kyuubi, open the door." Naruto said quickly and the little fox jumped down and touch the wall and the door fell in.

"_**You'd better not get killed Naruto! If you do, I'll make sure your afterlife is as unpleasant as possible!**_" Kyuubi said disappearing. Shikamaru walked over to the doorway and turned on a flashlight to began looking around. "This has more scrolls then the library… How are we going to get through them all?"

"Time, effort, and a bunch of people." Naruto said just as Shino and Sakura began walking down with Kiba and Tenten behind them.


	39. Chapter 39

"Gaara!" Naruto said happily as the two met and shook hands. "I'm sorry I can't meet you on better news."

"I think we all would like to meet on better news. Naruto." Gaara said looking past him to see Nagito. Gaara let go of Naruto's hand and held his up to Nagito. "Amekage."

"Kazekage." Nagito said shaking his hand. Nagito dropped his hand and looked at him. "I take it Shukaku hasn't caused anymore upsets?"

"We've started giving him peace offerings, kegs of Sake." Gaara said quickly. He turned around to Naruto, "where are we meeting at?"

"The Hokage's building isn't safe right now, will be having it at the Hospital conference room. It's the best we could do on two hours." Naruto began to walk towards the hospital when Sakura rushed over with a paper, "what's this?"

"One camera wasn't burned all the way, it's not a good image, but it'll narrow it down. It's the only picture we could recover." Sakura said holding it up. "Male ANBU."

"Get a team of female ANBU together and search every male ANBU's home, again." Naruto said quietly handing it back. "Hand search it, every thing, even outside." Sakura nodded and ran off.

"Having trouble, Naruto?" Gaara asked quietly.

"Someone betrayed me and broke into my library and stole some very important things that can be dangerous right now." Naruto turned around quickly, "you both have been receiving your own information on the Demons I take it?"

"What are left," Nagito said quickly.

"We've found something's that connect to it, if you'll follow me." Naruto said and they headed over to the hospital.

* * *

"No, hold it like this." Sasuke said sitting on the ground next to Mokuza and helping him hold the kunai to throw. "now bring back your arm and then throw it. Try to aim at the target alright?"

"Okay Uncle Sasuke." Mokuza said and pulled his arm back and threw it. The kunai spun and landed a few feet in front of them. "How's that?"

"Pretty good for a first try. Watch me and try to copy it." Sasuke pulled out a kunai and whipped it at the target cracking the plate in two, the bottom half dropped off. "Go get your kunai and try again Mokuza."

"Sasuke," Sakura said landing next to him with several masked ANBU. "We have to hand search all male ANBU houses, Naruto's orders."

"Go ahead, all there is in there is a toilet and a bed." Sasuke said pulling out his key and tossing it to her. "I was painting earlier, the walls might not be dry."

"Like this Uncle Sasuke?" Mokuza said running up and standing next to him. He moved his arm back and threw the weapon. It landed a couple feet away sticking out of the ground. "Look it didn't spin."

"That's a good job Mokuza."

"Yugao, watch him." Sakura said quickly and the kunochi sat down by them. Sakura opened the door and lead the team inside. Mokuza picked the kunai back up and ran over to Yugao and handed her the kunai. "You throw it; I'll watch and try to copy it."

"Alright…" Yugao threw the kunai and it landed directly under Sasuke's. Mokuza took off and began trying to pull them out of the tree. "Where's Katsuna at?"

"Shopping, again. As always. Do you need to call her and ask her her whereabouts?" Sasuke laughed quickly. "She's trying to pick stuff out for the baby's room. I told her it was a little early for that, but she doesn't listen to me, that's why I was painting this morning. She wants it set up by the time she's five months."

"How along is she?" Yugao asked as Mokuza landed on his butt failing to get either kunai out. Sasuke got up and helped him up pulling them both out and handing them to him.

Sasuke carried him back and set him down before him. "She's about a month. Luckily her mood's not being affected yet."

"What color did you paint the baby's room?"

"Well, I did the north and east walls white, the south wall's a warm red and the west wall is dark blue with the Uchiha crest on it." Sasuke finished tying strings to the end of the kunai and handed them both to Mokuza. "Pitch them as hard as you can, alright Mokuza?"

"Got it, Uncle Sasuke." The little boy threw one and it almost hit Sakura's leg as she exited the building. "Sorry Miss Haruno!"

"It's alright Mokuza." Sasuke reeled the kunai back and handed it to him. "Aim away from the house, okay?"

"Got it, Uncle Sasuke."

The rest of the team walked out behind Sakura, "Yugao, let's go."

They disappeared and Sasuke looked up. "Mokuza, why don't you go and get Ruki, she's at your house. She'll play with you more." Mokuza picked up the kunai and dragged them over to his house and disappeared inside.

Sasuke stood up and walked inside to the first bedroom's, the baby's, and walked over to a can of paint and examined it. Turning it around he saw the kunai marks on it someone had opened it with. Sasuke pulled out a shuriken and opened it without scratching it and reached his hand down inside and felt the airlock bag with the scrolls safely intact inside the gallon of paint. "They looked in the right place, just not hard enough."

Pulling the bag out he tapped it on the side and took it over to the bathroom and cleaned the bag and his hand off. Drying this arm he opened the bag and pulled out the scroll and began reading.

* * *

"I've decided to lead a team out personally and guard one of the Demons. Currently the closest is the six tails; we'll be headed out tomorrow morning to find him." Naruto said pulling out a map and pointing to the location. "I'd like to ask each of you to pick a demon and stay by them. You may want to explain why you're there to them."

"_**We appreciate not being locked up, so we'll do anything to escape. We hate being in non-living cages, nothing happens that way.**_" Kyuubi said sitting in the middle of the table.

"Fives near us, we'll keep our eye on him." Nagito offered.

"Shukaku's currently living happily outside of Suna, we've already got an eye on him. We'll buff up security though." Gaara said standing. "All have all visitors to my city looked over for the tattoo."

"Thanks for coming on short notice." Naruto said standing with him. They shook hands. "We'll be in close contact."

"Hokage, Amekage," Gaara nodded his head to the others and left. Closing the door he picked up his phone and dialed Kankuro. "Hey, get Shukaku more Sake and tell him he's in immediate danger of being locked away in a tea kettle unless he lets us help him… Of course he'll listen, you just have to get him exceptionally drunk."


	40. Chapter 40

"We're going to guard the six tails. You'll be in charge, handle all the unimportant things and anything you don't understand you can ask Itachi." Naruto said packing a quick bag of writing implements and forms. "You think you'll be alright?"

"I'll be fine, the Hokage's job isn't that hard." Sakura said placing her hands on her hips. "I helped Tsunade with her work in my spare time, I completely know what to do if any emergency pops up."

"What emergency, you forget to do my laundry again?" Naruto joked. "One more thing, remember to reset all the codes to the pin I told you, that's very important."

"000-00-0000. Right?" Rolling her eyes she shoved him. "That's a crappy security code. There are things made to hack codes and that's always the first one it uses!"

"Yeah, but if they don't have that, who's going to guess that we actually did that? It's genius!" Naruto said proudly. He folded the top of the bag over and shut it tightly. "Anyway, I'll see you when we get back."

"Who is all going?" Sakura asked quickly.

"Me, Sasuke, Neji, Suigetsu and Shino. We're going to have a guy party on the way there and back." Naruto smiled over at her as he slung the bag over his shoulder and put his Hokage's hat on and slid the holder under his chin. "You know, this things actually comfortable, the hat I mean."

He moved to put the other strap of the bag over his shoulder but had trouble until Sakura stepped in and helped. She turned and handed him the coat and he quickly put it on and zipped it up. "This outfit gets dry cleaned, so don't get mud on it."

"Alright, alright." Naruto said. "We may be out there for a while, if you need me…"

"I have Sasuke's cell phone number. Don't worry, it'll be fine, just while your gone I'll raid through all your paper work and change my salary, arrange the office and decorate in bright pink."

"You're picking on me, I'm going to tell Shizune and she'll yell at you and pamper me." Naruto teased poking her in the shoulder. He stuck out his tongue and began to walk away but she caught him and turned him back quickly. "I'm forgetting something aren't I?"

"Shoes Naruto." She said pointing to them against the wall. "You almost did it by yourself. You'd be doing better at remembering things if you had gotten some sleep today."

"It's just me, you've been up as long as I have." Naruto said and put them on quickly and moved back and hugged her tightly. "If you get lonely call me." Naruto kissed her on the forehead and flashed away.

Sakura stopped and took a deep breath in and smiled. "I am going to rearrange his office." Sakura said and began picking up the smaller things and shifting them to the side.

* * *

Naruto landed by the front gate and looked over at the two in ANBU and Suigetsu and Neji in their normal outfits. He stepped foreword and pulled a map out of his sleeve and opened it up. "The six tails was last seen here. We're going to find him and guard him against whatever's stealing the beasts. Got it?"

"We're defending that?" Neji asked, "And he's just going to let us hang around him like nothing?"

"We'll, we'll probably have to fight him, I was going to have Kyuubi talk to him, things like that." Naruto said. "We'll wing it when we get there."

"You have no plan?" Shino asked. "Well that's highly predictable."

"Why plan on something that's unpredictable. We have no clue what six tails is like, why are we going to risk losing a plan. Plus, winging it saves time." Naruto said. "Let's go." They jumped into the trees simultaneously.

* * *

"Do you need help… in whatever you're doing, Sakura?" Konohamaru asked walking into the office. "Doesn't the desk go in front of the windows?"

"But then it blinds the people who are sitting opposite the Hokage. What do you think?" Sakura said stopping the desk against the wall. She pulled the chair over and sat down behind the desk. "Also, no direct attacks; didn't think of that before but it's a bonus."

She flung her legs up on the desk and relaxed back. Konohamaru pulled out an envelope and handed it to her, "this was for Naruto, I found it when I was shuffling through the library. I'm not sure how old it is."

Sakura took it from him. "I'll give it to him when he gets back. Anything else, Konohamaru?"

"Nope, I'm going home for the night, Later Sakura." He said and left closing the door behind him. Sakura spun the chair around and looked at the clock, "I should probably get to bed too."

She dropped the letter on the desk and stood up stretching. She carefully reached under th desk and grabbed the folder she had put there earlier and opened it up to several thin camera tapes that were lightly burned. She held it up to the light and went through it. "Sasuke, I hope you know what you're doing."

She put them back in the folder and walked down the hall and unlocked the unused Hokage's bedroom and closed the door. She reached over and grabbed a candle and lit the folder on fire. Quickly she walked into the bathroom dropping the flaming evidence into the bathtub.


	41. Chapter 41

"Aunt Katsuna!" Mokuza said opening the door to Sasuke's house and poking his head in. "Aunt Katsuna, are you in here? I want you to come and tuck me in." The little boy began creeping through the house and turned a corner and opened a door and found the nursery and walked in. He looked around and saw about a half dozen scrolls on the floor and began picking them up and looking at all the weird symbols. "Daddy can read this!"

Mokuza began reeling them up and picked them all up and carried them out to the hall and out the door where he saw Kaiyomi huffing away at a cigarette. "Daddy says those are bad."

"It's okay, when I need to I just replace my lungs." Kaiyomi said and then turned down to see the scrolls. "Hey, what do you go there?" Kaiyomi bent down and looked through the end of the scrolls and saw one large red fire symbol. "Can I have these? They're boring books about science and stuff little boys hate, like ballet."

"Okay, I'll go have daddy tuck me then, I can't find my Aunt Katsuna." Mokuza said handing them over and ran inside. Kaiyomi sat down right there and began going through the scrolls and opened them up, perusing the text quickly. Suddenly her eyes caught some notes and grew wide, "oh shit."

She closed them up tossing the cigarette on the ground and stomping it out. Gathering them she rushed inside and flung herself down on the couch opening various pieces to differencing places. Itachi came strolling back out of the room and looked at her, "Last minute research?"

"Your brother's, Mokuza's a little thief but you may want to thank him." Kaiyomi said quickly and pointed to a place on the scroll. "This stuff is all about chakra control and chakra sealing, and this one, it's from the Hokage's library!"

Itachi's face nearly collapsed, "Sasuke… he's the one who broke in there? Baby brother…" Itachi leaned against the back of the chair and put a hand over his face. "I thought his aggressions against Konoha were gone."

"I… you don't need to go that far. Maybe he's doing it to protect Konoha, like by finding a way to seal up the rest of the tailed beast and protect them." Kaiyomi said hopefully.

Itachi moved around and sat down. "Do you know what else was taken besides that scroll, Kaiyomi? It was the fourth sealing technique."

"That still doesn't mean…"

"There may be someone out there producing Jinchuriki's, and my brother… My brother's stealing secrets that could help the enemies. Do you know how dangerous he is right now?"

"What are you going to do?" Kaiyomi asked as Itachi got up and wandered down to his room quickly. "You know, he's probably decided that the library wasn't that safe, maybe he's keeping them for safety purposes?"

"Then why's he studying it?" Itachi called back. "Kaiyomi, you're in charge of Mokuza." Itachi came walking out in full ANBU and lowered his weasel mask over his face. "I have to go have a talk with my little brother."

* * *

"Sakura." Katsuna said nudging her with her hand. "Hey, I need to talk with you."

"Hmm… Kat? What's going on?" Sakura asked sitting up. Katsuna pulled the folder Sakura thought sh had burned from out of the tub and was presenting it to her. "I just wanted to thank you for hiding these from everyone."

"Before you thank me, tell me why Sasuke stole those scrolls." Sakura said commandingly. "The only reason I tried to burn them was that Sasuke is one of my oldest friends and he usually has some type of reasoning behind everything. But I want an explanation."

"I asked him not to get me involved in this one." Katsuna said and sat down on the bed next to her. "I know some of you may still think Sasuke is a traitor because he left and he endangers his team a lot, but he does what's right. You've got to believe me, he is a good person, and he does want to protect Konoha. You just have to let him do what he wants."

"I believe you, just keep yourself safe. Don't let him drag you down with him if he messes up."

"When you love someone, you don't let them drag you down, you jump down with them." Katsuna stood up. "And the next time you decided to burn documents, do it properly, these went out right after you set them down it seems."

Katsuna walked back in the bathroom and a bright light erupted as Sakura walked over and saw her burning them with a fire Jutsu. She stopped and checked over the ashes and turned on the shower letting the water drowned the pieces and take them into the sewers.

* * *

"You look weird in that get up Naruto." Sasuke joked at the Hokage's outfit. "I think it's too big on you. You need a kid's size, or to shrink it or something."

"Maybe your mask is on to tight over that big head of yours." Naruto jabbed back. He called the party to a stop and checked the map, "he should be around here somewhere, keep an eye out."

"What does he look like?" Suigetsu asked looking around. "If he has black fur we may have to wait until sunrise to see him."

"It should be brown or light tan." Neji said quickly, "he's been trapped into the form of a large weasel. He also has amazing lightning control that can only be stopped by lightning."

"He may have already been taken. Do we have anyway of knowing?"

"Nagito, he has tabs on all of them by helicopter." Sasuke raised his mask and pulled out his phone. "Excuse me." He said and walked away from them and began talking.

"Naruto, shouldn't you be doing the communications with the foreign countries?" Shino asked quietly. "Sasuke seems to have a handle on everything by himself."

"Shino, if you're going to say something about Sasuke, then just say it." Naruto growled over.

"All I'm saying is shouldn't he be taking your orders and not the other way around. I've had a bad feeling about him ever since the break in. He's one of two people that could possibly do that Genjutsu on that scale."

"Shino, I'd like to remind that the last time that type of thinking was brought up, it created Madara Uchiha." Naruto crossed his arms. "Sasuke has a better connection with Rain then I do, he's close personal friends with them. I think we should use it instead of letting it get dusty." Naruto stopped and looked down. "And he's my best friend, and as long as I trust him, then you will trust him."

Sasuke shut the phone and walked back over. "He's two miles east of here. He said he was getting agitated at the helicopter, we may be able to get led by lightning soon."

"Let's go then." Naruto said and they began racing across the field. Shino looked over at Sasuke who looked back at him with the Sharingan in his eyes, he turned away and lowered his snake mask and took off ahead of everyone.


	42. Chapter 42

The lightning was fierce and it hit it's mark perfectly, the helicopter was stung viciously and began tumbling towards the ground as the group approached. Naruto closed his eyes for a minute and began gathering Chakra from around him in nature and opened his eyes to two large black circles around them. He ran far ahead of the group and jumped up catching the helicopter and landed on his feet, skidding to a stop, the craft held only by his hands. He set it down carefully. "Are you guys alright?"

Both pilots nodded and Naruto took past them to see the shadow of the giant weasel running towards them in a furry, the yells of the creature coming across like thunder. He looked over to Sasuke, "you're the lightning guy, what do we do?"

"Stay back and let me handle this until I can subdue him or come up with a better strategy." Sasuke said and took off his mask and hanging it from his belt. He went through the motions and quickly blew a large Katon into the sky. Taking off Sasuke began dodging the flying rocks from the beast's stomps. He heard the thunder from above as he slowly closed him. "Almost time."

The beast began to open it's mouth to show little shocks between the teeth. The light grew and Sasuke grabbed his wrist and gathered Chidori around him. The light flew from the beasts mouth as Sasuke lunged his arm out and split the attack; the light refracted back unto the creature.

The six tails roared out thunder and Sasuke raised his arm. Slowly lightning connected with his body and he looked at the beast and lowered his arm. The lightning hit the beast through it's center; demon fell to one leg and broke it gaze to Sasuke, "_**You're good with lightning boy. But not that good." **_

A single bolt came down and Sasuke fell down on the ground gasping for breath. The others looked on in shock. "Kyuubi, get out here." Naruto said quietly. The little steam of red chakra went around his shoulder and formed the fox on his hat, paws and tails hanging down over the rim. "How do we beat this guy?"

"_**Go up to him, but make sure you yell that I want to have a word with him. He fears me!**_" Kyuubi said happily. Kyuubi waited and Naruto tried to look up at the fox. The head of Kyuubi dipped below the rim and looked at him, "_**Get going before he kills your friend.**_"

"You don't seem that scary anymore. You're kind of cute looking, to be honest and all."

"_**DO IT!**_" Kyuubi said and Naruto began running. "_**RAIJUU!**_"

"_**What was that pesky noise? Oh, what do we have here? What's left of Kyuubi?**_" Raijuu laughed and he lay down on the ground and looked at him. "_**Not so great in that cell are you?**_"

"_**You weren't so great yourself locked away in a rock for five years, Raijuu.**_" Kyuubi said quickly. "_**We come on friendly terms if you would believe it. You know the others have been vanishing, they're being trapted back into the rock."**_

"_**The rock broke, little one. We're free to do as we please!" **_The weasel yelled and stood up calling lightning to show him off. The golden fur shifted as he slowly scooted foreword. "_**So, you're his prison, I'd like to thank you for taking that ignorant fool in. Kyuubi has long been a bully to us, it's good to see him be punished."**_

"There's a new rock, it's been absorbing the demons. We came here to protect you against it and hopefully catch whose doing this." Naruto said slowly. "We mean no harm, it's just you were attacking the helicopter which is why we sent Sasuke in."

"_**Whatever, guard me if you like. Just keep your distance! Especially you, you fowled smelling rat!" **_Raijuu turned and walked somewhat away and laid down looking back at the people as they all swarmed Sasuke. He snickered and turned over destroying plants and quickly fell asleep.

Naruto was the last one to Sasuke. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Like I was electrocuted, does anyone here know how to heal?" Sasuke said quietly. Shino bent down near him and began healing. "It's a surprise that'd you know how to do that."

"Hinata taught me how. I can only do very little though." Shino said and turned to look at him. "You're just a little roasted I think. You should be okay soon."

"Thanks, Shino." Sasuke said softly and turned to Naruto, "We should have sent you in Naruto. You're wind."

"I know, but all I can do with wind is Rasengan." Naruto said and sat down next to him. "Nice job, Sasuke."

* * *

"Katsuna!" Kaiyomi said grabbing her by the arm as she was passing the house. "Thank God I've caught you. Itachi's going after Sasuke! He thinks Sasuke may have betrayed the village."

"He might have, I'm not up to date on everything, but he's defiantly working for the good side." Katsuna said slowly and pulled Kaiyomi's hand off her. "Don't worry, Sasuke can take care of himself."

"But if they catch him they'll name you as a conspirer." Kaiyomi said quietly and looked at her eye to eye. "If I have to drag you away from the village to save you I will and you know that."

"I do, but, I'm willing to sacrifice myself for him. I just got done telling Saukra that. Sasuke makes me happy, so I will stand by him. I will however call him and tell him that he's to be expecting Itachi." Katsuna said quietly. "I know you helped raise me Kaiyomi, but I'm a big girl, let me fall on my face."

"Stubborn as always." Kaiyomi said patting her on the head. "Just don't get hurt. Also, Mokuza wanted to see you, he's in bed now though."

"No I'm not!" Mokuza said running out the door. "Where's daddy, I want my daddy!"

"Sweetie, come here." Katsuna said and the child diligently went into her arms. "Daddy went out to help uncle Sasuke. How about I come and put you back in bed?" Katsuna said picking him up in her arms.

"Will you spend the night with me? I don't like sleeping by myself." Mokuza said quietly. "There might be something in the closet. Like broccoli monsters."

"Ah, Suigetsu's monsters, I can assure you, that they run in fear of me!" Katsuna said proudly. Carrying him on her hip, she walked through the house and into his room setting him down. "Do you want a story?"

"No, will you spend the night with me?" Mokuza asked nearly pouting.

"Let me go call Uncle Sasuke, then I'll be back and I'll sleep with you tonight." Katsuna said quietly. Katsuna patted on him on the head and stepped right outside the door but not leaving his sight. She pulled her cell phone out and dialed and waited for a second. "Hey, is Sasuke there?"

"Just a second, he was badly injured." Neji's voice said as the phone wen through hands and Sasuke groaned. "Yeah."

"I just got back from destroying the evidence against you. I found out your brother knows and is on the way to confront you about it. Kaiyomi is afraid he's going kill you or arrest you."

"I'm not worried." Sasuke said quietly. "how's everything?"

"Good, I'm going to spend the night with Mokuza. Do you want to talk with him, he's worried the broccoli monsters are going to kill him."

"Broccoli monsters?" Sasuke asked looking over at Suigetsu and pointing an angry finger, Suigetsu began laughing. "I'll do something about the broccoli monsters later. Yeah, put him on the phone."

"Okay, just a second." Katsuna handed the phone over and Mokuza picked it up. "Hi Uncle Sasuke."

"Hey Mokuza, why aren't you in bed yet?"

"The broccoli monsters… they're everywhere."

"Don't worry, Aunt Katsuna will deal with them. I want you to go to bed, okay?"

"Alright. Night Uncle Sasuke." Mokuza said handing back the phone to Katsuna. "I'm going to put him to bed now. I'll talk with you tomorrow, alright."

"Alright, love you."

"I love you too. Bye Sasuke."

"Bye Kat." Sasuke flipped the phone shut. He motioned for Suigetsu to come closer which he did. Sasuke punched him as hard as he could sending him flying. "Stop telling Mokuza about the broccoli monsters, he's afraid they're going to kill him, you bastard."

"Ow… You're so mean Sasuke." Suigetsu said laughing and recovering quickly. The phone rang again and Sasuke opened it. "Hello?"

"It's Sakura, can I talk with Naruto?"

"Hang on." Sasuke turned to his left and hit Naruto who had already fallen asleep. "Naruto, its Sakura."

Naruto's hand reached and grabbed the phone and pressed it against his ear. "Hey, what's up?"

"Naruto…" Sakura stopped thinking for a second. "I know who took the scrolls. It was Sasuke." Naruto stopped and froze. "He doesn't know we know, if we play it out right, we can find out what he's up to."

"Alright. Anything else?" He said stiffly.

"No, good bye Naruto." She hung up the phone and Naruto snapped it shut and handed it back to Sasuke, "Next time some one calls for me, tell them I'm sleeping, because I am." Naruto said and got up. "I'll be back in a minute." Naruto got up and disappeared down near Raijuu and turned to Shino. "I'm sorry, Shino."

"Sorry for what, Hokage?"

"I'm sorry you're right about Sasuke. I want you tailing him twenty-four, seven. I want to know everything he does, where he is at all times."

"I'll attach a bug." Shino said letting one fly up.


	43. Chapter 43

Itachi dropped down next to Sasuke to see it go up in smoke. Itachi stopped and turned around to see two piercing red eyes in the darkness. Sasuke lifted his mask in the moonlight and smiled. He nudged his head towards a rock formation and Itachi carefully followed over to it. Sasuke stopped and leaned against it. "Hello big brother. You with Sharingan on, that's new, I thought you quit."

"I did." Itachi said and reached out a hand and put it around Sasuke's throat and raised a kunai. "Where's the Fourth's sealing technique, Sasuke?"

"It's safe." He said confidently. "Are you really trying to threaten me? You'll have to try a lot harder then that, Itachi." Sasuke reached up a finger and moved the kunai down then lifted Itachi's mask. "What's big brother gonna do?"

"Do not toy with me Sasuke. By taking those scrolls you fought against Konoha. Give them back." Itachi said holding a hand out. "You and I both know the sealing scroll is too dangerous to leave it where Mokuza would have mistaken it for a story."

"I left them out for you to find, but him finding them is just as well." Sasuke said and reached behind his back and pulled out a scroll and turned it on the side to show the symbol. "Still un-opened, don't worry, I plan to keep it that way." Sasuke pulled his hand off of his throat and rubbed it. "You've got a vice-grip, Itachi. You seriously could have made me put up a fight. But you won't, now will you, Itachi."

"I will let you get away with this, but I'm going to warn you. If you endanger Konoha, if you put my son in danger, I will kill you." Itachi said and grabbed his throat again and lifted him off the ground squeezing his hand together. "You may be my little brother, and I love you more then life, but my son will grow up, happily, with out with out you."

"Now that's a threat." Sasuke said breaking from him and jumping up on the rock. "Now that I've got you angry enough, I'll tell you my plan. I'm going to stop this guy single handedly." Sasuke raised his hand and wiggled his fingers happily. "You see, you're not the only one with someone to protect anymore. I have a family now as well, if you don't remember.

"Don't worry about Konoha, I'll keep it safe, and I personally will see to Mokuza's safety too. After all, this is my fault." Sasuke said quietly.

"Sasuke are you…?" Itachi asked and Sasuke shook his head.

"I have nothing directly to do with this, but it is my fault it's going." Sasuke said and stood up. "I was in Suna for two weeks… And Madara had been there for the past year, scheming, plotting, and teaching. I can tell from my gut feeling, whomever's doing this was taught by Madara."

"There's no way of proving that for all we know, Pein and Konan…"

"They've been busy with their own problems. After all, people are still trying to kill them, and now, they're being threatened with the same people we are. Only Rain and Fire countries are being threatened." Sasuke said and looked down at him and smiled.

"You think whomever's doing this is seeking revenge on the surviving Akatsuki members?" Itachi said, "Me, you, Suigetsu, Karin, Juugo, Kisame, Zetsu, Nagito and Konan, then what about Kisame and Zetsu."

"They report to you, they view you as the new leader for the sake of needing some to follow, don't they big brother?" Sasuke turned away and looked at the others sleeping then turned back to him. "It was just the other night Kisame was sleeping on your couch, and then he and Zetsu gave a full report to you and Naruto. That looks like allegiance to me."

"You do have logic on your side, Sasuke." Itachi said and lowered his mask. "One question, why aren't you telling anyone else?"

"I don't want them getting hurt. Isn't it obvious." Sasuke lowered his mask and jumped down next to him and placed a hand carefully on his shoulder. "This is happening because I didn't catch Madara in time. Go home to your son; he's having Kat protect him from broccoli monsters."

Itachi placed his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Do not disappoint me Sasuke, I don't take it very well."

"I know, I don't plan on it." Sasuke nodded and patted Itachi's shoulder and walked away back to the group silently and lay down on the ground. His hand went up and waved; lowering it he cuddled up tightly to himself and began to fall asleep. Itachi disappeared into the darkness of the night, his head turning once to see a lightning strike illuminating the weasel on the ground snoring thunder claps. "Raijuu…"

* * *

"How's Shukaku doing?" Gaara asked as Kankuro and Temari walked into his office as he was preparing to leave. "Not going to cause any trouble?"

"He's singing and hitting on all the kunochi, he's taken a fondness to Temari." Kankuro laughed and Temari punched him in the face sending him against the wall.

"That thing tried to fondle me! It is not funny, Kankuro!" She screeched. "I want that thing gone Gaara, let him be someone else problem!"

"You're just mad because he's taking all your Sake, Sis." Kankuro joked getting up. "Shukaku's not in any danger I think. Maybe he's too weak, his only good thing was defense after all, and that disgusting thing with the burping."

"Let's hope he's too weak. Keep feeding him Sake, keep giving him the kunochis and tell them it's for the village, anyway, I bet most of them like it." Gaara said and grabbed his coat. "I have to get home, I promised Matsuri I wouldn't be late for dinner tonight. Kankuro, you take the first night shift, Temari, the second. I'll see you both in the morning." Gaara said walking out and closing the door behind him.

Kankuro happily walked over and sat down in Gaara's chair. "As person currently in charge, I order you to go back to Shukaku and turn up the charm!"

"I am not! You little bastard!" Temari said grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up. "You are in charge for four hours, if you try and boss me around, you'll be in the ground in four minutes, got it?"

"I'll call Gaara back, he said 'keep giving him the kunochis' it's what I'm trying to do, unless you want to rip him away from Matsuri. Personally, I don't feel like having an angry housewife after me, she's gotten good with knifes." Kankuro joked.

"Fine, when I'm in charge, you're going in drag, not transformation, as a kunochi, baby brother." Temari said throwing him down and walking away. "I'll let you borrow my heels."

He heard the door slam and shrugged, "it's worth it."


	44. Chapter 44

"Take it down!" Naruto shouted as Sasuke unleashed Chidori on the statue and put a crack in it. He jumped back and looked at it. The eye for the three tailed turtle was closed now. Naruto flashed up Next to Sasuke gathering the natural energy and smashed his fist into it breaking the eye for Kyuubi. The two jumped back together and saw an eye force open quickly, they turned and the six tailed weasel was gone. Naruto was about to throw another attack but the statue vanished. "DAMN IT!"

"At least we cracked it, the more we weaken it the better." Sasuke said quickly. "We did all we could."

"That's not good enough anymore!" Naruto said turning around. "Shino, report!"

"There's no sign of anyone within two miles."

"Neji, report!"

"Same reading, I'm afraid."

"Suigetsu, you have anything to add?" Naruto asked marching into there camp and sitting down.

"Yeah, actually." He said. "While you guys were fighting, I saw that he was made of a sedimentary rock composed of sandstone and shale, breccia was present as well. If we get charts from each country on their lands, we'll be able to find where it was made."

"That's genius. We actually have something useful." Naruto said writing it down quickly.

"He also had Fountain grass on his shoulder, well thriving. We can limit it by the conditions as well. It can only be in certain temperatures, to cold, it freezes, to warm and it'll get dehydrated." Suigetsu said proudly. "I just figured out more then all of you!"

"How do you know so much about plants?" Neji asked wondering.

"Juugo, hanging around him all the time you learn things, especially since all he does is sit around staring at the wilderness all day." Suigetsu laughed. "I can't believe that actually came in handy!"

* * *

"So… One of the seven swordsman, I'm honored to be able to kill you. And a former Akatsuki to boot." The boy laughed jumping down and landing on the rock glaring down at Kisame. "Never thought'd you be the one I'd get to try this out on first. She asked me to kill some one close to you, but not you yet. I guess you'll be practice."

"You've got a big mouth for such a tiny head, kid. Do you know how badly I'm going to torture you before I kill you?" Kisame said pulling his sword out in front of him and ripping off the bandages. "you know, you'd be a nice little present for Itachi, he loves teaching idiots a lesson."

"That's the guy I'm after; maybe I won't kill you after all…" the boy said smiling. "Tell me where he is and I'll simply leave."

"I thought you had guts kid, now I guess I'll have to check. Real men don't rat their friends out, of course, I'd doubt yours have even dropped yet. How old are you? 14, 15? You should be old enough to start feeling the chakra in others, yet you're persisting?" Kisame laughed.

He lunged foreword and smashed the rock as the boy jump off and turned around to try to land a hit on Kisame who blocked with his sword. He moved the blade quickly and the boy retracted his hand with a painful face on. "Come on, it's only a little shave. You what my favorite part is, the sound of shaving bone… No wait, it's the screams of the person as I shave their bones."

The boy stood up and began transforming; he placed his hands on the ground and began glowing of blue fire with two burning tails. The beast roared in might and Kisame stopped stared and began laughing and even fell down on his ass and rolled over. "You're kidding! The two tails! Why not send a toddler after me!"

"_**What's so funny?"**_

"This!" Kisame held up a hand sign and the area flooded closing in water all around him. "Look, the cat's getting a bath!" The demon screamed and screamed until it found its way on top of the water. "You are so pathetic! I don't even know why I'm toying with you." Kisame stood up, "but seriously…" Kisame landed a hit directly on top of the beast and knocked the boy unconscious.

Dismissing the water Kisame picked the boy up by the hair and began to position the sword. "Now if you don't hold still, I won't be able to scalp you properly."

"**Kisame! **Drop the boy." Zetsu said popping up behind him. "**We'll take him to Konoha."**

"Can you take his corpse?"

"Kisame! He's a Jinchuriki, I think it be best he go alive. **Then you can kill him." **Zetsu said picking the body out of Kisame's hand. "It gives you time to plan."

"Nobody let's me kill anymore! Itachi never lets me kill, you never let me kill! Samehada deserves to shave every now and then, she's a very anxious weapon." Kisame said as Zetsu began disappearing with the body. "I'll be around looking for of them."

"If I'm right, the next one, **you can kill.**" Zetsu said as the capsule closed and he disappeared.


	45. Chapter 45

"Kaiyomi…" Zetsu said popping up outside of Itachi's house and tossing the boy down. "**I've got a very disturbing present for you. **He's a Jinchuriki, two tails. **Kisame took him out about two hours ago. **Where's Itachi at?"

"He's out dealing with his little brother." Kaiyomi said standing and looking him over, "Such a small kid really. They should have picked someone who could fight better then this thing." She said and kicked him over. "He's still alive? Oh good, I get to test me methods on a live test subject."

"Zetsu." Katsuna said walking out of her house and looking at him, "I haven't seen you in a while."

"I've been busy Katsuna. **We have a Jinchuriki.**" Zetsu said pointing to the boy.

Katsuna bent over and picked him up and looked him over. "He has a good healing potential."

"It's how he survived the fusion." Kaiyomi said quickly as Katsuna dropped him on the ground. "Kat, will you go get someone in charge and bring them down here so we can go over him? I'd really like to get dissecting."

"I'll be back in a few minutes then." Katsuna said and jumped up over the buildings and left.

Zetsu looked at her and nodded as he began going down in the ground. Kaiyomi went inside for a second and called Ruki out to take the body inside. The little girl picked up the body over her shoulder and dragged him inside easily and set him down on the coffee table. Kaiyomi pulled out her kit and she began searching for the sight of fusion and found it in a little 'X' right above his heart.

Hearing the door open she looked up and saw Sakura walk in quickly with Katsuna following her. "What do you mean he's a Jinchuriki? Naruto and Kirabi are the only Jinchuriki, plus he doesn't have a seal."

"It's called Chakra fusion, instead of temporarily sealing something in, you fuse it with a certain part that can conduct chakra, either the heart or the brain. I bet if we cut him open his heart will be burnt black a little." Kaiyomi said quietly. "We need to get everyone back here now and worry about this instead of them disappearing; they'll eventually find their way here."

"They're already on their way back, six tails was abducted last night. They should be here within an hour." Sakura said and grabbed the boy. "Kaiyomi, I'll need you to come and help explain."

"Of course." She said standing. Katsuna waved as they left and felt a tugging on her dress. "Mokuza, up already?"

"Yep." He said and suddenly Ruki dropped down off the ceiling. "Katsuna, can you make us breakfast, we're hungry?"

"Yea, what do you want?" Katsuna asked picking up Mokuza who was still having problems keeping his eyes open. "The usual?" He nodded against her and yawned.

* * *

Itachi landed carefully at the grave yard of the Uchiha clan and walked over to two tombstones and looked at them before sitting down between them. "Mom, Dad, you're son is an ass. He was so sweet as a kid, now he's grown and playing around with fire, both literally and figuratively. I'm just afraid someone's going to get hurt."

He sighed and fell back and stared up at the sky. "Your grandson's doing well. Sasuke taught him how to start throwing kunai, he's not doing that bad for being almost four. He's completely obsessed with ducks as normal, I can't wait until he moves out of that phase, I'm tired of finding ducks in the bath tub.

"Anyway, I just came by to relax for a bit and tell you what's new. I hope you guys are doing alright wherever you are." He said and closed his eyes and let the morning sunshine come down on him warming his face.

* * *

Naruto came out of the interrogation room with blood on his hands and turned over to Kaiyomi and Sakura who were waiting for it to finish. "Kaiyomi, get ready to extract the beast. Sakura, come with me."

Kaiyomi nodded and ran down the hall and out of sight. Sakura looked down at the floor, "why are we taking the beast out? Shouldn't we just kill him?"

"He thinks it's so wonderful being a Jinchuriki… He thinks as long as the two tails I inside him, he's invincible, I'm going to have it taken out and show him how weak he is. Then maybe we'll get a little farther into information about who's doing this." Naruto growled and began up the stairs Sakura following closely. "That stupid bastard, don't they get what happens when people find out you have a demon in you?"

"Naruto, only about nine people have ever know what's it's like, all they can see is the power you have." Sakura said lightly and froze as Naruto stopped and turned around.

"Kyuubi has made my life Hell, I'd do almost anything to get rid of him short of suicide." Naruto quietly turned back around and kept walking. His pace quickened up and he got angry. "Get Itachi here now! I want him in that interrogation room!"

"Yes sir." Sakura said running away and Naruto stopped again.

"Yes sir?" Naruto said quietly. He quickly flashed in front of her and caught her by the shoulders. "I'm sorry I didn't mean t snap at you."

"Huh, don't worry about it. You're under a lot of stress. You can pay for dinner tonight as a sign of forgiveness, but right now, I need to go do my job." Sakura said and pulled his hands off. "I'll be back in a second."

Sakura took off running down the hall again and Naruto turned away and began towards his office. He scratched his head and was bit by the fox that had crept up there. "_**Go ahead Naruto, kill yourself, kill both of us in one hit. I have a chance of escaping while you're dying, and then I'll be able to watch her cry over your dead body.**_"

Naruto picked the fox up by the neck and threw him to the ground. "If you went so useful I would try to kill you. Now shut up and get back in your cage." He growled and continued down the hall the fox staring at him. Kyuubi grinned '_**perfect…**_'


	46. Chapter 46

"Do you really think it's wise sending them outside of Rain?" Konan asked quietly as Nagito sat staring at a blank wall. She walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "People might recognize them and then who knows what. Old habits are so hard to fall into."

Nagito picked up her hand and held the back of it to his face. "That's why I have you. They're at the border, I'm sending all of them to Grass to investigate unless you have another idea." He said turning the Rinnigan eyes to her. She at down and held him shaking her head. "I've already informed Grass's leader of their purpose, they won't be attacked or anything."

"I'm still worried, hunting Jinchuriki's again… We should go make dinner." Konan said dragging him up with her. Naigto nodded and they went into the kitchen. "It all feels far to familiar."

"We're not capturing this time, we're killing. There's a difference." Nagito said and turned to her. "Don't worry, I've gotten over that."

"At least you shouldn't have to control them that long, especially since Sasuke and Suigetsu sent us that map of possible locations." Konan smiled and let go of him. "When are you going to retire?"

"When I find someone in Rain that we can trust to run it." Nagito said. He turned to Konan smiling, "will you stop worrying, already?"

* * *

Naruto and Sakura stood outside the door listening to the boy scream in pain and terror that wasn't actually happening. Sakura had begun to bite her lip. "He's been screaming for ten minutes straight."

"You've never been around for one of Itachi's interrogations have you, he does it all in his Genjutsu, and when he feels like it… It's not pretty, but it does help. You'll give up your legs to get out of it; it'd probably feel less painful." Naruto said staring at the door. The screaming stopped and the door opened with Itachi carrying the boy out.

"I have a lot, but he didn't know much. It was all arranged on his end, whomever did this to him, came to him ever single time and locked him in a Genjutsu to hide their identity." Itachi said handing the body over to Naruto. "Good luck in exorcizing the beast, if you need us to do it our way, Kisame's at my house."

"You're not going to stick around and help out?" Sakura asked before Naruto could cut her off.

Itachi kept walking, "I have to go rinse myself of my self-disgust, so no." He vanished around a corner and Naruto turned to her.

"He may be our best interrogator, but he has problems with what he does." Naruto said throwing the boy over his shoulder. "Let's not waste anytime, I want to get this thing out quickly and start interrogations when he wakes up again."

"But didn't Itachi get everything?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to ask him how stupid he was to throw away his life at such a young age." Naruto said and began walking down the hall to the prepared room where Kaiyomi had set up everything needed for the chakra fusion. Laying the body down Kaiyomi set a small blue and black rock with a roman numeral two chiseled in on his chest above the 'X' and put her hands together. "He'll survive this right?"

"I don't know personally, all my research shows he will." Kaiyomi said as thick beams of chakra slowly crept out and went into the rock. "Do you need him alive?"

"My title requires me to say yes." Naruto said walking out. Sakura quickly leaned in, "he's just upset about he whole Jinchuriki thing. But, yea, alive would be best." Sakura quickly walked out after him and caught up to him and placed a hand on his arm as they walked. "I know you're upset, but try to be civil right now. Getting angry won't help anything."

"I know, it's just hard to wave this by as nothing major and not let it get to me. Maybe I need a nap." Naruto said as they began heading up to the main level. "What time is it?"

Sakura pulled out her phone and read it. "2:38."

"Wake me up at five, alright Sakura?" Naruto said smiling. "I still owe you dinner." He looked around quickly and hugged her. Sakura gave in to him and hugged him back. "So am I still winning?"

Sakura pushed him off and laughed as she walked away. "We'll talk about it at dinner, I want to go out someplace nice."

* * *

"Do you like it?" Katsuna said as they sat down on their new couch, she lay against him and he stroked her hair. "I wasn't sure what to get so I got this, it has a recliner at that end."

"It's fine; we just need everything else now." Sasuke said looking around the bare room. "That's your job for the next month is to decorate the house."

"And what's your job? And it better not be 'I'm a ninja' because I'm one too." She said grabbing his arm and pulling it off her hair and around her waist.

"To keep you happy."

"That's a good answer."

"I do have to go to the Fire temple soon, in a few weeks is the tenth anniversary that my parents died." Sasuke said quietly. "I'm going to get a good prayer for them."

"That's sweet of you. You should go with your brother, it'll be a bonding thing since you two are watching each other carefully."

"Fighting the same war, on the same side, with different orders. I don't think he's ever going to trust me again, and I don't blame him or mind. He's always going to think my methods are crazy." Sasuke said and looked down at her. "You should help me with the plan."

"What are we planning?"

"A death; a very good, important death."

"Alright, you have my attention."

* * *

**End Part Three**


	47. Chapter 47

**Part Four: End Beginning  


* * *

**

Naruto sat patiently next to the former two tails and waited for him to say something more then 'go away.' The boy began struggling against the restraints and Naruto began laughing. "There's no way you'll get out of those, they're chakra restraining and lined with metal wire. Why don't you just answer my question, and I'll let you go."

"Just go away, I have nothing more to tell! Are you going to have that guy torture me again or what?" The boy said throwing himself around frivolously. Naruto relaxed in the chair and to stare at him with remorse. "What?"

"Why don't we start with you're name, kid? Hell, even a nickname. Just give me something to call you." Naruto turned the chair around and faced the boy. "Otherwise I'm going to start calling you idiot."

"Then just call me idiot!"

"Alright then idiot. Why'd you have the cat put in you? Don't you know what people do to Jinchurikis, they fear them, try to kill them, and worse off, they ignore you."

"That all doesn't matter; I'll flatten the earth with my power. Anyone who treats me less then I am will perish."

"You go on thinking like that you'll be a lonely man, if you make it that far." Naruto leaned in and looked at him. "Listen kid, I'm going to be frank, the minute I feel you're useless, I'm going to kill you. You better start thinking wiser or there'll be problems. Oh… and we took the two tails out of you."

"You can't do that! I bought it! It was mine." Kyuubi slowly drifted out and formed on top of the boy. "Oh I get it, you want to be the only Jinchuriki left, don't you? You're doing this for your own gain!"

"I'm trying to save you! I still get people wishing me dead on the streets because I have something that destroyed the city in me! Even with all the good I've done, I'm Hokage!" Naruto said slumped back in his chair. "Kyuubi do you have anything to add?"

"_**Yes,**_" the little fox added slowly and turned to the kid. "_**He won't commit suicide, I try everything! He just absolutely won't do it. I'd rather not exist than live inside this stupid body of his!**_"

"Why haven't you just done the taking out procedure? Obviously I survived it."

"Our case is a little more complicated." Naruto said quietly.

"_**We signed a contract, which I think we both regret now. Plus, he needs my chakra and I need a form to waltz around in.**_" Kyuubi said laying down and looking at the boy, "_**I'm not stupid enough to be freed without the clearing of all the other beast, that just makes it more difficult to fight, someone might actually beat me.**_"

"When the demons meet each other they fight. Kyuubi's never lost." Naruto said and stood up. "What do you have to say now?"

"I'll get my cat back and beat you to the ground. I will be the most powerful…" The boy's head collapsed as Naruto punched him on his heart. The screen next to the boys bed flat-lined.

"_**So are you going to keep Nekomata on your desk forever, it's been two weeks since you put her in that rock. I personally like watching her squirm in her tiny container.**_" Kyuubi said jumping up on Naruto's head as they left the room and walked down the hall of the hospital. Naruto saw a nurse and stopped her, "the prisoner suddenly died, can you make arrangements to get him shipped to the Hokage's building's autopsy room?"

"Yes, Hokage." The nurse said and turned right around and got on the phone as they left. Kyuubi smiled, "_**I think I'm wearing off on you Naruto, you're getting vicious!**_"

"Don't flatter yourself, everyone knew I wasn't going to let him live." Naruto said as they flashed up to the Hokage's building and sat down on the roof. "We only have a week left of construction. Itachi must like the quiet in the Uchiha district, he hasn't been complaining when he helps people move back."

"_**I can't believe five years ago we were trying to kill Itachi and save Sasuke, it's almost the complete opposite now isn't it?**_" Kyuubi laughed. "_**Best friend or not, that boy betrayed you, you can't let him get away with that, Naruto, you're the Hokage, not him. Why don't we go tell him everything we know?**_"

Naruto grabbed the fox and flung him off. "Sasuke has a perfectly good reason, I expect. Now get in your cage or shut up." Naruto said walking away, the little fox watching him intently.

* * *

"Itachi, I'm going to get the prayer for the clan, Katsuna said we should get it together." Sasuke said walking in and leaning on the wall across from Itachi. "We should take Mokuza too; he likes to stare at the monks."

"Family outing, that's unusual for you to suggest, little brother. Mokuza's sick however, I'd need to find a babysitter." Itachi said not looking up from the news paper. Sasuke bit his thumb and quickly went through the motions and landed a hand on the ground.

"What's up?" Pakkun said looking at Sasuke. "Who are we tracking?"

"I need to you watch Mokuza. He's sick and Itachi and I are going to get the prayer." Pakkun saluted quickly and began to walk down the hall and stopped outside Mokuza's door to hear "doggy!" along with some coughing. "Come on big brother, you're turning out like dad, more interested in the newspaper then looking at people when they talk."

"I am not turning out like my father." Itachi said coldly and got up. "I'll be dressed in a minute."

Katsuna slowly walked in and grabbed onto Sasuke. "I'm going to buy kitchen stuff, do you have any ideas?"

"Yeah, don't by a toilet." Sasuke smiled and she punched him softly in the shoulder. "You said any ideas."

"I'll remember that, I was thinking of red and white. Well, I'm taking all your cash and going shopping." Katsuna said and they embraced quickly and he kissed her on the forehead.

"Have fun." He said and she left. A minute later Itachi came out carrying Mokuza with Pakkun following. Itachi lay him on the couch and turned the TV on. "No going outside today, got it?"

"Okay daddy." Itachi bent down and kissed him and then walked over to Sasuke and nodded. "Puppy, I'm hungry, can you make me eggs?"

"I can't cook, I have paws." Pakkun said holding one up. "I'll try to go find you something though. Then maybe if you feel better we can play a game or something."

Sasuke followed his big brother outside and they began walking. "So, I see you still don't trust me, I can see your sword under you shirt."

"I thought you could, but I wasn't sure." Itachi reached into his shirt and undid the sword's belt and moved it to the outside. "Saves me the effort of trying to hide it."

"When are you going to start trusting me again?"

"When are you going to stop blaming Konoha for the clan's deaths?"

"They gave you the order!"

"The clan was going to revolt against Konoha! It was their own fault! They should have known better, they could have just asked for more responsibilities. No, our father was going to lead a civil war against the city because of something that happened 90 years ago!" Itachi said stopping. "You have to take responsibility for your own actions, they should have known that."

Itachi continued walking with Sasuke who looked up at him, "Why do you even go to their graves if you feel that way?"

"Because they're my parents, and I loved them." Itachi said softly.


	48. Chapter 48

Sasuke set the pray down in between a candle and burning incense and back away and sat down on his knees next to his big brother and bowed his head. The smoke from the incense rose and circled the ten year old clan photo in back, a young Itachi carrying an obnoxious Sasuke on his shoulders were the center of it surrounded by parents, cousins, aunts, and uncles.

Itachi stood and bowed placing his hands together. He stood back up and turned to Sasuke, "you can go ahead and ask it already. I know it's in you're head."

Sasuke stood and copied him then turned to look at him. "How can you live with this guilt Itachi? Killing all of them?"

"Because I didn't want to openly defy them in combat. They are my family, but Konoha is my village. I owe allegiance to both. Which is why I'm scared for you." Itachi said and began to walk away. "What you're doing, it's being to remind me of Madara."

"How dare you say that! I am to like Madara in the least!" Sasuke yelled. Itachi stopped. "Come back here Itachi!"

"No Sasuke, you've got to see what you're becoming. Go tell anyone that you're undermining the Hokage, go and tell them and watch their disgust in you! It's how Madara started, all with the guilt that he never overcame." Itachi said taking another step. "You've never really felt at home here, have you Sasuke?"

"Don't lecture me, you're not my father! You killed my father!" Sasuke said and rushed at his brother. Itachi turned around pulling his sword and held the handle out to Sasuke, the tip of the blade point at his throat. "What?"

"You want revenge, again. Take it. I won't stop you, I want you to feel what I feel, feel the guilt of taking away a little boy's parents. Let you go home with blood on your clothes and look at my son and tell him the same thing I told you and let him grow up just like you, full of hate and sorrow." Itachi yelled at him. "Better yet, why don't you go kill me in front of him, go ahead, I'll let you, you want revenge so badly, you want someone else to know what it's like so badly, than make another you!"

"Itachi… I…"

"You know what the worse thing will be… then you can be just like me." Itachi whispered as Sasuke took the sword and held it to Itachi's throat. "You get to wake up every morning wanting to kill yourself. Look at everything around you and want to destroy it because you shouldn't have it, you're not good enough. So shut up or put me out of my misery."

Sasuke moved the sword and stuck it back in Itachi's sheath. Silently Sasuke walked away as Itachi dropped to the ground slowly and began to cry.

* * *

"I inspected the body, you killed that boy Naruto." Sakura said closing the door to his office behind her. She walked in and sat down in a chair and tossed a filed down. "We cut him open, a half chakra scorched literally broken heart. What's getting you so stressed?"

"Because it's needed." Naruto said quietly. "I just need to start getting rid of the tailed beasts. Sakura, send out an order to all of our ninjas and alert the other countries, any Jinchuriki they spot besides Kirabi and myself are to be exterminated."

"Exterminated, you're making this sound like an infestation." Sakura said heavily.

"It is, Jinchuriki are only fuel for war and destruction, we can't have them running amuck."

"And what about yourself?" Sakura asked standing.

"I'll deal with myself lastly." Naruto said and began shuffling through paperwork. Sakura stormed out of the office and Naruto threw his head down on the desk.

* * *

Iruka strolled over to the door and opened it, "Huh, Sasuke, what's up?"

"Can I talk with you about something?" Sasuke asked quietly and Iruka stepped aside and let Sasuke walk into his apartment and sat down. Iruka followed him over and sat down across from him and looked at him. "Do you ever want to get revenge for your parents deaths? Make them feel like you felt?"

"All the time right after they died, of course, I never would after learning about who it was and that it was impossible to make them feel my pain, even though I could kill them, I'd gain something else that I'd never lose." Iruka sat foreword and put his hands together. "I take it things with Itachi are bothering you?"

"Why should he be that happy after what he did? He says he feels like he should die. Not ten minutes ago he handed me a sword and told me to kill him if I felt like it… but I couldn't. And then I almost did something terrible." Sasuke said and put his head in his hands. "I stood over his son and was about to kill him. But I couldn't, he's just a little boy, he never did anything."

"I had a same encounter after the Third's words weren't enough to comfort me; I went to the hospital kunai in hand and went to the maternity ward. Naruto was in there, the seal on his stomach. The Kyuubi killed my parents, I wanted to kill the Kyuubi and he was there helpless." Iruka said, "Tsunade saw and rushed in and threw me against the wall. She asked me how I could even think of killing an innocent baby. I never saw an innocent baby, I saw that damn fox the entire time."

"You tried to kill Naruto?" Sasuke said quietly. "But Naruto spent his life suffering because of Kyuubi."

"I didn't stop trying to kill him until I found him when he was five, hiding in an alley, crying. I dropped the kunai and walked over asking him what was wrong; he said some one had just tried to kill him. He clung to my legs asking him what he did wrong, why everyone hated him. He never understood what was in him, he just wanted to have fun and smile about something. I found out I was wrong in my anger, and that revenge will hurt the innocent."

"Like my nephew."

"Anger never goes away in things like this. You just have to look past it." Iruka said quietly and sat back. "Don't beat yourself up over this."


	49. Chapter 49

"Is it nearly done?" Sasuke asked quietly and stepped into the kitchen to see Katsuna setting her pen down. She picked up the scroll and began to blow on it. "Almost, just needs to dry. Are you sure this plan will work?"

"Positive, I just need to you understand that I may not come back." Sasuke said and leaned her head on her.

"You'll come back, you always will." Katsuna said taking him in her arms. "Anyway, Konoha's not really that big of a deal, we can live anywhere, why do we have to save it?"

"Who said I was saving it?" Sasuke muttered and pulled her tightly to him. "This might be my last time holding you."

"Stop thinking like that."

* * *

'_**Naruto, learn to hate that which you are…They've hated you for what you are, you can to, and take it out on them.' "The people are evil Naruto, all those people, all those who stared at you, laughed, mocked you. Take you vengeance, kill them! I can help you! I want to help you!**_" Kyuubi whispered in Naruto's sleeping ear. There was a clicking in the shadows and Sakura stepped foreword. "_**Aw… it's that stupid little girl you have a crush on she wants to hurt you Naruto." **_

"Naruto! Wake up!" Naruto jolted and sat foreword, "I think you should hear what that demon's been whispering in your ear at night."

"What are you talking about," he turned and saw Kyuubi disappear into the seal. "Why was Kyuubi out of me?"

"He's been getting to you why you sleep, I've been suspecting it for about a year now, he's making you more aggressive, more like him." Sakura rewound the tape and played it as Kyuubi's voice came over saying things Naruto couldn't believe. "He's tainting you. We need to get him removed."

"Kyuubi… Kyuubi's the reason I keep snapping at everybody?" Naruto said getting out of his bed, "we need to do something about this, I need to go talk to Itachi about the contract."

Sakura reached behind her and pulled out the scroll with his thumb print and Kyuubi's burnt chakra. "Kaiyomi will be here in the morning, there's nothing in the contract about removal, so all terms are followed. I picked out a nice rock for him."

"_**You bitch!" **_Kyuubi yelled creating a wolf size version of himself and swatting her across the floor. "_**I'll kill you myself!**_"

"I have control of all your chakra, Kyuubi, stop or the seal will activate and you'll be dragged inside the death god's stomach." Naruto said and looked at the fox. "You're going in that rock, and whatever damage you did to me I'm getting reversed."

Naruto bent down and picked up Sakura's unconscious body and lay her on the bed. "_**Naruto, have I been nothing but kind to you? Plus, do you really think the death god can swallow me?"**_

"He did it before, I bet he'd love a second helping." Naruto sat up on the bed next to Sakura and brushed the hair out of her face. "Kyuubi, get inside me now." The fox disappeared and Naruto lay down next her putting his head close to her neck. "Kyuubi, you're not allowed to come out."

* * *

"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked as he looked over at Itachi as he was walking out of his house. Sasuke was sitting on his front porch staring at the sky. "It's only four AM."

"I'm meeting Kaiyomi. Kyuubi's been possessing Naruto, we're removing him in a few minutes. You want to come, I got a call from Sakura, he's worrying, needs support." Itachi said softly. "Listen about yesterday…"

"Forget it. I've decided to leave, Konoha's not my home. It hasn't been for a while. It's hard living with the government that killed my family." Sasuke said and stood up. "I better get back to bed."

"That government's gone, it died with the elders two years ago. It's a new Konoha, I wish you'd just stop hating the city that helped raise you." Itachi said and began towards the main gates where he saw the thinly blond approaching. "If you hate something about the city, take it up with Naruto, he is the government now. And you called the government your best friend a few days ago."

Sasuke stopped and looked at him. "I'm coming too, I guess." He turned and ran up after his brother. "This isn't changing my mind about leaving though."

* * *

"Does this hurt?" Naruto asked looking over at her.

"Calm down Naruto, it's not even affecting you, it focuses on Kyuubi alone." Sakura said quietly. "Anyway, you should thank Kaiyomi for turning around and coming back after she just got home."

"It's no trouble, it's more practice." Kaiyomi said and placed her hand on Naruto's bare stomach. "It may tickle though."

Naruto turned his head and looked at Sasuke and Itachi on the wall, "Sasuke, come here." Sasuke walked over and looked at him. "I need you to think up a plan we can catch this person. I figured you being the smart one; you'd be able to do it no matter what."

"I already have it. No one knows your taking out Kyuubi, and it's not a widely known fact that when a Jinchuriki dies that beast dies too. We're going to stage your death and see if they come to collect your body, then we take them." Sasuke said. "I've already talked to Katsuna, she'll be cloaking your chakra. I have all the people we'll need there ready by tonight. We can perform it tomorrow."

"You should ask before putting things into motion, or at least let me know what you're up to." Naruto said and lunged gasping for breath.

"As I thought, put the breathing machine on him quickly, Sakura." Kaiyomi said watching the huge stream of red go into a large rock with a 9 carved in it. Sakura shoved Sasuke out of the way and put the mask around Naruto's head and turned it on, forcing him to breath. "I expect Kyuubi's chakra might be a bit too much. It'll probably be a half an hour operation if you guys want to go."

Sakura defiantly grabbed a chair and sat down next to Naruto, clutching his hand. Sasuke simply fell to the floor and began picking at his finger nails. Itachi stood up, "I have to get back to Mokuza, he's still sick. Everyone." Itachi bowed quickly and left.

Naruto turned over to Sakura and looked at her, his eyes heavy. She smiled back and squeezed his hand. "It'll be alright." She got up and moved the chair closer and laid her head next to his. "When everything opens up, we should all go and get breakfast together."

"I'll take you all, my treat." Sasuke said happily and pulled out a kunai to get the dirt out from under his nails. "But someone should have told me you two were going out. That's really cute of you guys." Sasuke laughed.

Sakura kicked him with her foot and sent him flying back a couple feet. Kaiyomi looked at her, "that was meant to be a compliment."

"Oh, sorry Sasuke!"


	50. Chapter 50

"Naruto, can I speak with you?" Shino asked dropping down on the window and looking in at the three sitting their eating breakfast. Naruto put his chopsticks down and got up. Shino jumped up on the roof and Naruto flashed up. "There is a plan under the plan he told you. You could be risking your life if you go along with this."

"I'm not worried, anything comes along, I can handle it." Naruto said calmly.

"All the people that will be in the tomb: him, Katsuna, Karin, Suigetsu, Juugo; they are all his people and owe loyalty to him, not you. I'm requesting that you put Neji and I in the tomb as well, we can protect you if the time comes." Shino said.

"No, stay on your task. Observe and watch, I have a feeling he'll be visiting this person soon. I want you to follow him there and contact us on his whereabouts." Naruto said as Shino was about to open his mouth again. "That's an order. I still trust Sasuke even if he did betray me."

Naruto flashed into the office and left Shino on the roof. Shino turned to a rooftop a couple away and jumped over to where Neji stood. "He said no."

"So are we still going?" Neji asked as Shino nodded.

"I still have to follow my orders, but that doesn't say anything for you."

* * *

"Are you telling me to lay on a slab all day with a cloth over my head?" Naruto asked Sasuke as everyone entered the Hokage's tomb. "That's boring."

"Deal with it, you'll have to limit breathing as well." Sasuke said and took his place behind the first Hokage's coffin. The rest moved to their position except Katsuna who put the shroud over Naruto and then put a cloak over him. "No fidgeting." She said and went behind the fifth's table.

"Sasuke! Can you put me to sleep or something?" Naruto asked.

"You snore, idiot? Or did you forget that already?" Sasuke said in response.

"I'm hungry…"

"You just ate!"

"Still, hey what if I have to go to the bathroom?"

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sasuke yelled and the tomb went silent.

* * *

Sakura sat at Naruto's desk and glared at the two stones on it waiting for Konohamaru to show up. "Kyuubi, I hope you here this, I'm sending you to the deepest part of the ocean, you'll never escape from that rock of yours until the oceans dry up."

The rock giggled a bit on the desk but stopped. Sakura laughed, "what, too small for you?"

There was a knock at the door. Sakura replied and Konohamaru and his team walked into the office. "Where's Naruto?"

"He's playing dead. I need you to take these, run out onto the ocean for two days and nights and drop them into the deepest waters you can find." Sakura picked up a steel box and set them in their using her gloves. She padlocked it and handed him the box. "Under no circumstances is this to be opened."

"You got it Saukra." Konohamaru said and the team slowly left the office discussing the rocks between the three of them. Sakura walked back to the chair and looked out the window. "I hope you can catch whoever's doing this, Naruto."

* * *

"Someone just entered a 100 meters from the north, their pretty fast, it's defiantly not civilian." Neji said holding Baykugan hidden in a tree next to Shino. "60 meter… 40… They should be within eye shot."

"It's a little boy." Shino said and lifted hi sun glasses, "he's not wearing any forehead protector." The boy dropped down in front of the tomb and entered slowly. When he stepped foot down on the ground Sasuke's hands went up as he jumped in front of the boy and caught his glare. The boy walked past him as if he wasn't there and went over to where Naruto was and pulled up a shroud he saw in his mind. He didn't come close to Naruto and yet flung an invisible body over his shoulder and began to exit. Sasuke followed and smiled, "you can move, Naruto."

As the boy jumped up so did Sasuke and they left, Sasuke right behind him. Shino took off and Neji jumped down into the tomb as Naruto sat up complaining. "That was the dullest thing I ever did."

"It was in case there was more then one person; we'd have you flash out of here while we took on the bad guys. But it was a kid so Sasuke just put him under and followed him." Katsuna said. "Well, let's hope he comes back alright. I am not being a single mother."

"YOU'RE PREGNANT?" Karin screamed and dropped to the floor.

"That's Karin for 'wait, Sasuke really doesn't like me?'" Suigetsu said. "Watch this. Karin, did you know they're getting married?"

Karin screamed and put her ears over her head. Juugo shook his head, "I'm being to pity her."

"Naruto, Shino's on Sasuke's trail." Neji reported. "Shino's got a head set on so we can keep communications up."

"Good, but for now… I have to go to the bathroom." Naruto said and flashed away.

The four turned to Neji. Katsuan walked over to him, "why are you trailing Sasuke?"

"Sasuke was the one who broke into the library." Neji said bluntly. "Excuse me." Neji turned and began up the stairs and Katsuna reached into her pouch and pulled out the fourth's sealing scroll. 'Do not give this up until I return, let them suspect me. If they think otherwise, they'll ruin my plans.' Katsuna put the scroll back.


	51. Chapter 51

"I can't believe him; he should have gone with a team." Itachi said as he and Katsuna sat watching Mokuza play with a toy duck Ruki had brought him. "Shino may not be enough if he gets in danger. Plus he has the sealing scroll."

"No, I have it." Katsuna said pulling it out. "Sasuke took the replica I made, it has a fake seal on it, this is the real one." She said and handed it over to Itachi.

Itachi opened it and looked over it, throwing it down to the ground he looked at her, "that SOB took the real one. This is your fake." Itachi stood up and turned to her, "watch Mokuza. I have to go and talk to Naruto."

"Why? It's not like Sasuke's going to let them have it. He plans on killing them, he thinks whomever is behind this is what Madara left over. He wants to stop what they're doing."

"I know that, but there are a few other things you don't know about my baby brother." Itachi said walking out, "he signed his name on the suicide scroll yesterday morning. He'll do anything to defeat Madara."

Mokuza heard the door slam and looked up, "where'd daddy go?"

"He went for a walk." Katsuna said through a fake smile. She reached down and began fingering the ring he had given her. 'I will kill you if you die, Sasuke.'

* * *

'This boy doesn't stop. That's amazing at such a young age. He can't be older then nine.' Sasuke thought as he followed the boy over a brook and stream as the sun was rising up on the east. The boy stopped by a tree and reached underneath it and there was a loud click that echoed through the area.

Slowly two rock walls grew in the middle of the river cutting off the flow and a passage way under the river showed up. The boy took off running down the small way and Sasuke quickly followed. Suddenly he saw why the boy was running, the river had started to come in and a flood wall had begun to come down. The boy wasn't going to make it.

Sasuke grabbed him and slid under the wall just before it slammed shut. He lay there in a small pool of water and let the boy up. The boy turned around looked at him then began searching around for the imaginary body of Naruto. "No… No! Where'd you put him! I need him!"

"Relax kid. Why do you need him?" Sasuke asked sitting up and looking at him.

"She said she'll kill my little sister if I didn't bring him back to her, and now she'll do it! I failed!" The boy screamed holding his head. "She's going to kill Akina!"

"Relax, alright, first thing I need you to do is stop screaming." Sasuke said putting his fingers to his face and focusing for a second. A large thing of smoke appeared and cleared out to show a replica of Naruto as a corpse. "Here's his body, I want to come with you. I'll keep you and your sister safe, alright?"

"Okay." The boy said quietly picking up the body.

"What's your name, kid, I'm Sasuke." He said offering a hand.

Feebly the boy shook it. "My name's Dai." The boy turned and began to run Sasuke following right behind him.

* * *

The buzz came over followed by Shino's voice. "Neji, do you copy."

"I copy but this is Hinata, Shino, we traded off so he could get some sleep." Hinata said quietly pulling the food away from her mouth.

"I've lost sight of Sasuke; he's gone into an underground complex. I need either you or Neji here so we can have Baykugan led us through. Go ask Naruto if one of you can lead a team out to me."

"Just a second. I'll go get him." Hinata said and rushed out of the conference room past Neji and down the hall to the Hokage's bedroom where she opened the door and looked in to See Naruto with his arms around Sakura sleeping covered only by a sheet. Hinata took a step back and closed the door. "I have to go get Neji up."

"Hinata! Just go give him the headset!.. What's wrong?"

"He's sleeping… and Sakura…" Hinata stopped in the hall and began mashing her fingers together. "I know I'm supposed to be over this but…"

"Just walk in, take the headset off and tell him it's Shino and walk out. That's it Hinata. You can do this."

"Alright." She said nervously and opened the door took off the head set and bowed. "Naruto, it's Shino, it's urgent."

Naruto look up and took it. "Thanks." Hinata walked out of the room and shut the door. She sighed and collapsed onto the ground, 'he was naked! Ah! I'm thinking about him naked!' Hinata grabbed her head and began back to the conference room.

Naruto put the head set on sitting up. "Hey Shino."

"Sasuke entered an underground complex under a river, we're in Grass country, I'm requesting a team to meet me, preferably with a Hyuuga so we can know what's ahead."

"Alright, name who you want on it, I'll have them going in a half an hour."

"Hinata, Kiba, and two others of your choosing."

"Alright, they'll be there by nightfall. Naruto out." He lowered the head phones and set them down. He turned over and nudged Sakura. "Hey, you want to get up?"

She lifted her head and nodded but stopped when she saw Naruto's stomach. "Hey, your seal, it's coming off like paint." She stopped and took the sheet off, "uh, I got it all over me. I'm going to take a quick shower."

"I'll come too.' Naruto said following her into the Hokage's bathroom.


	52. Chapter 52

Dai carried the body into the room and Sasuke followed close behind as he entered what looked like a shrine with a little girl hanging above in a cage sleeping in the corner. An elderly woman with a twisted smirk came down and looked at them. "Oh, does he want a demon, they're for sale if you have enough money."

"Actually, I brought you a present in exchange for some knowledge." Sasuke said holding out the fourth's sealing scroll. "This will make more of your buyers live longer. But, I want some things first… as a sign of trust."

"Trust comes from trust, boy." The woman said and turned around and shook the cage. "Wake up girl!"

"Don't shake her!" Dai cried. Sasuke held him back and let the woman shake the child awake. "Akina!"

"Let's exchange trusts then. I'll give you all my weapons, and you give me the girl and the boy. It assures that I can't kill you and that you can't kill them." Sasuke said quickly.

"Fair enough! The woman said and stopped. Her hand reached up and opened the cage letting the girl fall out; Sasuke moved quickly and caught her. Sasuke moved her to one arm and pulled off his ninja pouch ad handed it to her along with his sword. "You have gained my trust boy, what's your name?"

"Suigetsu." Sasuke lied. "What can I call you?"

"You can call me Li, I never really had a name before." The woman giggled. She looked over the sword and threw it across the room along with the pouch. "Now, as long as it is in my capabilities, what is it you want?"

"I want you to teach me everything about chakra you can in one day. I'm a faster learner too." Sasuke said sitting down and smiling at the girl. "I know advance uses but I need to learn how to apply them, healing and hurting chakra, then if we have time, what you are doing with the beasts."

"Can do boy, let's start with healing." The old woman said and grabbed a stick and cut the little girls arm with it. "Heal her. It's not that hard."

Sasuke was about to leap out and attack the old woman, but he stopped and set the girl down. "It's going to be okay, I'll try and heal you." Sasuke put his hands down and try to focus chakra out. "I don't know what I'm doing. Any pointers, Li?"

"Focus on the area around the cut, that's the part that needs stimulating." Li said and went to sit down at the edge of the room. "Are you sure you don't want to buy a demon, they're not that expensive."

"I'm positive, I've hunted Jinchuriki's before for a man named Madara Uchiha." Sasuke said as a small light began to admit itself from his hands. Slowly the cut began to look better. "I was a part of Akatsuki."

"Never heard of it before, Madara Uchiha however, I think I met him a few years ago. Gave me a scroll, told me to use it wisely." 'I knew it, she is Madara's student.' "The scroll had all of these advanced techniques, very useful, they let me capture demons within seconds. Someone ruined my eye for the nine tails, however, so I will have to find someone to put Kyuubi in quickly before the body deteriorates."

"Are you a ninja?" Li shook her head, "no, and in my aging years, I'm getting worse and worse at it. Luckily, the boy has extraordinary abilities; he does all the Jutsu for me. Don't you boy?" Li said grabbing the boys arm and jerking him.

"Hands off him! He's mine now!" Sasuke roared. "Our agreement, you honor it or I'll take my weapons back!"

"Very well, Suigetsu." She said dropping him. "You're very touchy about things that are yours, aren't you?"

"I protect what is mine, Li, and he is mine now." Sasuke said and raised his hand away. "She's healed." Sasuke sat her up and looked at the little girl. "Hi, I'm going to take care of you now, okay?"

The little girl nodded and crawled into his arms. Li laughed, "She likes you, how cute! Now, do damage to her, and teach yourself the opposite of healing."

"I'll do it on myself. Go sit with your brother." The little girl nodded and the two moved to a far corner away from Li and sat down. Sasuke raised an arm and the hand began glowing chakra, "is this the right type of chakra, Li?"

"Yes, a little more vicious, if you would." Sasuke grunted his teeth and hit his arm with it and screamed. "That's it; you are a fast learner, very good. Now heal it." Sasuke's hand changed chakras and he began working on it. He stopped for a second and refocused it and it came out better. "Have you had any training before?"

"No, I've seen training before, but never took part in it." Sasuke heaved looking for breath. He finished up and stood up. "It's time I proved my trust in you, and then I want you to teach me how you can put demons in and out of people."

Sasuke pulled out the scroll and opened it up showing her. "What's this looks like a seal of some sort."

"It's the seal the fourth Hokage used on the Kyuubi. The best seal ever created, the most complete ever desgined." Sasuke rolled it up and tossed it to her, "it's all yours now."

"You're a very nice young man, you know. Such a large gift! How impressive. I will show you, come, will move demons from the statue to different objects." Li said leading him to a side room. "It's fairly easy. You just grab the chakra with your chakra and pull it out."

Li reached up a hand to the statue and began moving four tails from the statue to a near by rock. Sasuke looked at her, "that simple, then let me take over." Sasuke reached up a hand and felt the warmth of the four tails against him and began pushing it into the rock.

"Good, you are a very quick study!" Li said excited. "I have plenty I could teach you, Suigetsu. All you have to do, is give me your time." Sasuke finished and smiled to see the rock begin to hop around. "Don't worry, they do that sometimes."


	53. Chapter 53

"Say," Sasuke asked as he finished transferring the seven tails over to a rock. There before him were four rocks trembling in their own power. "What type of Jutsu is this statue, I'd say Earth, if I wasn't mistaken."

"You're correct it is." Li said and as Sasuke's grabbed his arm and turned towards her. "Did you injure yourself?"

Sasuke slid his hand down and lightning lit up. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and I will kill anything left over from Madara Uchiha." He rushed her and stabbed her through the heart with Chidori. He slid his hand out and she dropped to the ground dead.

Turning to the statue Sasuke smiled. "This is the last step."

* * *

"We're here." Hinata announced as she, Kiba, Sakura and Lee landed.

"Hinata will lead us in, if you can open the thing up Shino, we can go." Sakura said and Shino put his hand under the tree as Dai did and pulled a lever and the walls came up showing the path. "Hinata!"

"Right!" Hinata said activating Baykugan and rushing in. "There's three life signs, one's Sasuke." She said as she saw the door begin to lower. "There's a mechanism, we need to move faster!"

They speed up and all made it to the other side to keep going. Hinata put her hand up as they approached a lit room. She turned to Sakura who nodded. Hinata put her hands up and raised a two and pointed to the left then a one and pointed to the right.

"Which is Sasuke?" Shino asked quietly and Hinata pointed right.

"What's our orders, Sakura?" Kiba whispered.

Sakura pointed to her, Hinata and Shino then to the right. She pointed to Kiba and Lee and pointed left. Lee gave a thumbs up as Sakura raised a finger. She dropped it and they moved in quickly.

Kiba and Lee stood in front of the two children and stopped. They turned to See Sakura walk into a side room and vanish out of sight. Kiba turned back, "Hey there, I'm Kiba, this is my friend Lee, what are you doing here?"

"We were kidnapped, an evil old lady took my sister and made me work for her, that guy came in, he saved us." Dai said quietly. "Do you have any food, we haven't eaten today."

Lee began to dig through his pouch and pulled out a packet of trail mix. "It's all I have, share with your sister."

"Sasuke Uchiha, by order of the sixth Hokage, for theft of restricted documents and treason against the village, you are herby under arrest. Hinata." Sakura said coldly. Hinata pulled out a silver vest with lower arm cuffs attached to the back. Without resisting Sasuke put it on and even zipped it up.

"This is one of Neji's contraptions, isn't it?" Sasuke asked putting his hands behind his back. "Before I go unconscious, the fourth's sealing scroll is on the floor, by the doorway."

"You're a piece of work you know that?" Sakura said as Hinata finished and pressed a button on the vest. Sasuke began gasping for air and fell down to the floor. "Shino, grabbed him."

"Destroy the statue… the beasts are in the rocks." Sasuke got out before his head fell to the ground. They turned to look at her. "Hinata, grab the rocks that move to chakra. KIBA!"

Kiba ran to her and bowed, "what is it?"

"Can you destroy that thing?" Sakura asked quickly, Kiba smiled and walked over to it.

* * *

"The statue was destroyed, these are the four tailed beast there were. There're two Jinchuriki out there somewhere, Kisame will find them soon enough." Sakura said setting a bag on the desk. She sat down on the chair across from Naruto and laid her head on the desk. "It kind of upset me to arrest Sasuke."

"Imagine having to issue an order on your best friend." Naruto said turning the chair and to look at her. He reached a hand out and patted her head. "It'll be okay, I know no one believes him besides me, you and Katsuna, but we know him best."

"You're right, we do. Which is why it might hurt if we're wrong. One more thing, there were two kids, we can't get them away from Sasuke. One's seven and the other's two, a boy and girl named Dai and Akina. The ANBU are watching them with Sasuke." Sakura said and looked up at him and put his hand down. "They turned the vest down, but they've got up hanging by it with a blind fold and gauntlets. It's hard to look at him. He's in good spirits though."

"I'm going to go see him. Why don't you go and lay down for a bit, Sakura." Naruto said standing as he left the office and ran down the stairs to the bottom level and began walking again to see ANBU stationed at the door. The crossed there arms and Naruto looked at them, "move your arms, or I'll break them."

"Under the circumstances, we cannot follow your orders, he's a flight risk. We're sorry Lord Hokage." Naruto looked at them and flashed inside to be greeted by an ANBU attack which he quickly flashed out of. "Lord Hokage, stop! No one is permitted in here!"

"I am in charge! You will stand in attention silently! That's an order you will follow!" Naruto roared.

"So Kyuubi really did get to you, Saukra told me about how Kyuubi was messing with your head in your sleep. I see you're more aggressive, which is good sometimes, Naruto." Sasuke said cheerfully. "Could you do me a favor, when you leave, take the kids to Katsuna. Tell her I sent them and she'll take care of them."

"No, we won't leave you!" Dai screamed and rushed up grabbing one of Sasuke's legs.

"It's okay, Katsuna's my wife, she'll take care of you. So, how's my case going? Am I going to jail, death, what? I'm getting bored of hanging here."

"You killed the woman who was doing it, why?" Naruto asked. "She even offered to make you a Jinchuriki."

"I've seen your time with it, the demon, decided it wasn't my style. Plus, she was the loose end that Madara left behind. The children are her loose end, but they're mine now." Sasuke said quietly. "I'll be taking care of them."

"Why'd you return the scroll?"

"I only needed it to gain her trust so she could teach me how to pull the demons out of the statue. I knew my efforts would fall flat if I didn't get the demons out of the statue before it was destroyed. I figured you could do with it what you've done with the others." Sasuke stretched. "Seriously, I'm getting bored. Something better happen or I'm going to walk out of here."

"Let him down." Naruto said turning to one of the ANBU. "Sasuke Uchiha risked his life to finish off one of our biggest threats, even if he did it through theft and deceit. AS Hokage, I'm clearing you of all charges." Naruto said pulling the blindfold off of Sasuke. "Take him down!"

Shino stepped forward and walked over to the main chain and undid it slowly lowering Sasuke down on his knees. Shino nodded at him and let the chain completely down. He then walked over and started undoing the restraints with Naruto. "So, Shino, you finally trust me?"

"No, but Naruto does. And as Hokage, I must agree with his reasoning. We have no evidence for or against your crimes." Shino said halfway upset. "Personally, I despise you."

The restrainst fell off and Sasuke stood up. "Thanks guys. Dai, Akina, come here." Sasuke said and both rushed to him and he picked them up. "I'm going home."

"Sasuke, be in my office tomorrow at noon, we'll have lunch and talk about some things. Okay?" Naruto asked. "Bring Katsuna too."

Sasuke looked at him strangely. "Okay. But don't order ramen this time."


	54. Chapter 54

"Uncle Sasuke!" Mokuza yelled running up to see him carrying two kids. "Did you bring me someone to play with?"

Sasuke set them down. "Mokuza, this is Akina and her big brother Dai. Kids, this is my nephew Mokuza, he'll play with you for a while." Dai got down and picke up a ball Mokuza had left in the alley and they ran off playing with each other, leaving Akina staring up at Sasuke. "You don't want to play? I'll take you inside with me, alright."

Itachi seeing the boy in the alley with his son, stepped outside to see Sasuke right next to him. "Hi big brother."

"Hey little brother. I see you're not in custody anymore." Itachi looked at the little girl in his arms and smiled. "Hi there, what's your name?"

"Akina." She said quietly and turned over grabbing Sasuke's neck and hiding behind it. Sasuke smiled and pulled her back down. "She's a bit jumpy. She and her brother were being held captive by the witch Madara left behind. I need to find accommodations for them soon, they need to be with a real family."

"So, I guess everything turned out like you wanted it to, eh Sasuke?" Itachi said and put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "you may be stubborn, but I'm proud of you Sasuke, you stopped all of this."

"Thanks Itachi." Sasuke said.

"Sasuke!" Katsuna said rushing up and slapping him in the face. "You are to never, EVER, do anything like that again, EVER!" She stopped and collapsed into his open arm. "Next time you do something like that, I'm castrating you."

"I will behave, I promise." Sasuke said and pushed her off handing her Akina. "Akina, this is my wife Katsuna. Katsuna, this is Akina. Itachi can you watch her for a second?"

"Sure." Itachi said as he took the small girl in his arms. "Let's go watch the boys play, okay." Itachi said walking away down the street where he sat down in front of Mokuza and Dai playing.

"Kat, can we keep them?" Saskue asked quietly.

Katsuna's jaw dropped. "What?"

"I think they're orphans, and they have no place to go and they've attached to me already and I… I sound like a girl, don't I?" Sasuke laughed. Katsuna nodded quickly. "Please?"

"But with the move and everything, you'll have to go back to mercainary work and I'm already pregnant." She stopped and sighed. "If it's alright with everyone we can keep them, but, you have to contact the Hokage's office and see if any countries have them missing. Alright?"

"Okay, I'll call Naruto and have him do it. I might keep them anyway though." Sasuke smiled.

"You and kids, I swear." Katsuna said and kissed him quickly. "I better lay out some pallets then."

"Oh, Naruto wants to come for lunch tomorrow."

"Both of us, why?" Sasuke shrugged and went to sit next to Itachi where Akina quickly jumped over to him and pulled out his cell phone. He called quickly and heard Naruto laughing. "What, do you miss me already?"

"Funny, Naruto. Can you get in touch with the other countries and ask if they're missing the kids I picked up. We need to get them a home if they have one."

"Yeah, I'll get Saukra on it. I've got to go, alright, I'll have response by tomorrow. Later." The phone hung up. "Naruto was actually busy for a change."

"That's shocking." Itachi commented. "His is Hokage after all." Sasuke nudged him in the arm. They watched as Dai began teaching Mokuza how to properly kick a ball.

* * *

"Sakura, can you talk to the other countries, see if they have any missing children, the ones with Sasuke." Naruto called into his office. Sakura looked up from his desk and growled at him. "I'll do my paperwork later, get on this first."

"Alright." She said and picked up the phone. Naruto walked down the hall to the empty room and opened it up to see the boxes moved in. He walked over and opened up a window and stuck his head out of the building, "this is good."

He opened the largest box and began pulling out pieces to a brand new wood table with something special engraved, the symbol of Konoha. "This is perfect." He sat down and pulled out screams and grabbed and screwdriver and began to put it together, about half way through Sakura entered the room. "What are you doing?"

"Preparing."

"For what?"

"You'll see tomorrow. What's that?"

"It's a hit on the kids." Sakura said quietly. She held it up to him. "It's their background information, Dai and Akina Mishawaka."

* * *

"Naruto give them back!" Sakura yelled as he took her chopsticks and held them away. He laughed at her and she reached over and tried to get them making her stretch and eventually fall over on him knocking both of them on the ground.

"Are we interrupting you two?" Sasuke asked stepping into the room Katsuna giggling behind him. Sakura quickly grabbed her chopsticks back and sat up blushing.

"We were just playing keep away." Naruto said sitting up laughing. "Come on it down, food should be here shortly."

"It'd already be here if you let me go and get it." Sakura complained.

"Those kids, Dai and Akina." Naruto said as Sasuke and Katsuna sat down across from them. "There from Iwa and the city has asked for them back unless we can do something for them."

"What do they want?" Sasuke asked quickly.

"Sasuke wants to keep the kids." Katsuna explained. "He's very vehement about it."

"Well that solves it." Sakura said, "Iwa wants us to place them in a good home or return them to the orphanage. You'd have to adopt them. There's however a large fee per child, that you'd have to pay, it may take a few weeks to come up with it. In that time, they'd have to go back to Iwa."

"How much is it?" Sasuke asked impatiently. "I'll pay."

"650,000 yen. It'll be a while." Naruto said quietly then perked up, "for you to pay us back."

Katsuna and Sasuke looked at the two. "We've been discussing it and decided it was alright for you two to borrow the money." Sakura said as she stood up to get the food from the delivery guy.

"She means she decided." Naruto said making a face at Sakura as she set the food down. "If that's alright with you two."

"That's fine with us, right Sasuke. Um, Sasuke?" Katsuna said and tried to snap him out of his trace. "He still has trouble displaying joy sometimes. Yo, Sasuke."

"Why are you doing this? I stole from you, put the village in danger, and you've gotten me out of jail and are paying for my kids." Sasuke said and looked seriously at Naruto. "You make no sense to me."

"I never make sense." Naruto said standing. "Sasuke, would you follow me quickly."

"Yeah." Sasuke said and got up following Naruto out as Naruto led Sasuke downt he hall and opened the door to the room he had been working on. "A new office?"

"Sasuke, you don't follow orders! Unless it's to do something simple you go off and make your own plans! Your stubborn, selfish and are completely hopeless." Naruto said crossing his arms. "However, you're smart, will do anything to protect you and your family and are one of the best damn ninjas to ever exist."

"I am well aware." Sasuke said walking over to the desk and sitting on it. "So, what is it?"

"Catch." Naruto said and tossed him a scroll. "Someone should have done this a long time ago."

"And what's that?" Sasuke said opening the letter and reading it. "You are a bastard."

"I know. Do you want it or not, get to make your own rules, order people around legally now. What do you say, Sasuke?"

"Do I have to wear the outfit, I think it looks stupid."

"Outfits mine and I resent that." Naruto said, "this is your office, sharing a desk would be hard, since I sleep there a lot."

"I have to go tell Kat." Sasuke said and Naruto followed him back to the room as they both sat down and Sasuke handed her the scroll. Katsuna looked at it and looked at Sasuke, "should I take it?"

"Yeah, you really need to ask." She said and Sakura looked over.

"Sakura," Naruto said sitting down, "you are staring at the new Hokage."

"Congratulations!" Sakura said, "You're brothers going to be so proud!"

Sasuke smiled, "Can I borrow the outfit for the afternoon?"

* * *

"Akina, nothings wrong, you can stop crying for me." Itachi said and grabbed one of Mokuza's ducks and began speaking through it. "What's wrong, you can tell Mr. Duck."

Mokuza nudge Dai and pointed, "look, the duck talks!" Dai started laughing at him and patted him on the head as he made his way over to his little sister. "Come here, Akina."

The little girl shook her head and kept crying. The door opened and the girl looked up to jump off the couch and run towards the figure. "How'd you know it was me?"

Akina touched her nose and smiled as the person lifted her up. Itachi stood up, "Hokage… Sasuke?"

"I got a promotion." Sasuke said lifting the hat up. "What do you think, I only get to wear it to tell you, Naruto's protective of this for some reason."

"It's because the Third always wore it. So what's the first thing your going to do as Hokage?"

"This, Dai, come here." Sasuke said and called him over and bent down next to him. "We've found you and your sister a family."

"No leave you!" Akina shouted and grabbed onto Sasuke.

"I've adopted you, both of you. So that is Uncle Itachi." Sasuke said pointing. Itachi sat down and began laughing. "And he obviously thinks it's funny, and you get to call me dad."

"DAD!" Akina said and grabbed on to him. Katsuna came in behind him with bags. "Awe, she really does like you. Dai, come here, were going to get you enrolled while the academy's still open." Katsuna held out a hand and he walked over and took it. "I'm going to be your mom, okay?"

"Alright." Dai said nervously as they walked out.

"I'll see you later, Big brother, bye Mokuza."

"Bye Uncle Sasuke."

Itachi smiled and waved as he walked out. Mokuza walked up to Itachi and crawled into his lap. "Now you'll get to play with them everyday." Itachi said poking him in the forehead.

"I should show them Ruk."

"Who's Ruk?" Mokuza got down and ran into his room and came back out with a duckling. "Mokuza… You want to keep him, right?" Mokuza nodded. "Alright, you can keep him, but just this one. No more ducks!"

Mokuza was lifted into Itachi's lap where they sat playing with the duck.

* * *

**Thank you for reading Downfall! This was a very fun story for me to write and I hope it is a good read for you. Sincerely Aki**


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